Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Thrice blessed on a Sunday May 5, 2013

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DO YOU EVER EXPERIENCE one of those days when you feel blessed, just blessed?

This Sunday would be such a day.

One of those blessings came in a shoebox, carted to church this morning by my friend Joanne. She spotted two vintage drinking glasses at her son-in-law’s mother’s garage sale yesterday and mentioned my glassware collection. The mother told Joanne to take the two glasses and give them to her friend. That would be me.

And so this morning after the 8 a.m. church service, Joanne handed me that shoebox with two outrageously cheerful glasses, unlike any others in my collection.

Vintage glasses

While I absolutely adore the vintage 70s glasses, I value even more Joanne’s thoughtfulness in giving me something she knows I will use and appreciate. It’s not my birthday, not any special day for me…

The second blessing of the morning came when 2 ½-year-old Mia, who wasn’t feeling well, arrived at my house around 9:30. Her mom, my friend Tammy, had phoned earlier wondering if I could care for Mia while her family attended the confirmation of their eldest son. I didn’t hesitate. The rite of confirmation is too important for parents to miss.

Tammy thought I was doing her a favor. But she was also doing me a favor. Years have passed since I’ve “played dolls” and read picture books to a child. And let me tell you, such child’s play is good for the soul.

Finally, my third blessing of the day came from Cecilia, one of my favorite bloggers, who writes from her “little farm on the prairie” in Illinois. I can’t even tell you how long I’ve read “The Kitchens Garden,” but I cannot imagine my day without a trip to Cecilia’s “farmy.”

She takes me back to my childhood on the southwestern Minnesota prairie, reconnecting me to my roots via her insightful, creative and splendid writing and photography. But more than C’s ability to write well are her compassion and care for both people and animals.

Rather than try to explain, just read this comment posted by Cecilia on my “Hope Unfurls” post published Saturday:

I was out collecting trees the other day and Sandy (The Matriarch) said how she always enjoys your comments, she is so worried about you out there in this infernal snow.. a winter that will not let up is not good for a woman she said, it wears on her, but you have stood up to it with grace and fortitude, not long now I hope, and you will have some flowers. Love from all of us! So proud to be your friend, Audrey. c

Thrice blessed I am this Sunday, dear readers. Thrice blessed.

© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Thoughts on the day after Thanksgiving November 25, 2011

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Thanksgiving Day dinner at my house with family.

ON THE DAY after Thanksgiving I am thankful…

  • …that I am not battling the mobs searching for bargains, even if my sister terms Black Friday shopping as “fun.” She regales me with tales of shoppers smashing shopping carts into hers and the rule she and her daughter follow: “We won’t fight anyone over anything; it’s not worth it.” I’ve figured out the real reason she shops today. It’s all about tradition and being with her daughter and not really about the bargains.
  • …that my mom could spend another Thanksgiving with me, my family and other members of my extended family. She’s 79 and not in the best of health. Last evening my husband and I drove her up to the McStop in Lakeville where my uncle and cousin met us. My mom will spend several days with her Arkansas sisters, her brother and their spouses in Minneapolis. Family time is precious.
  • …for the 60-degree temperatures Thanksgiving afternoon that prompted us to pull out the lawn chairs and sit on the patio, the sun warming our backs in a brisk wind.
  • …that my second daughter made it home for Thanksgiving, her first trip back from eastern Wisconsin since May. She’s a Spanish medical interpreter and, with only one weekend a month free of on-call status, simply can’t come back to Minnesota as often as I’d like.
  • …that my oldest daughter who lives in Minneapolis opted to sleep here on Thanksgiving, making me a particularly happy mom. I love having all three of my kids together with my husband and me for an evening and then all tucked into our beds, under the same roof, for a night.
  • …that I am going to be a great aunt for the fifth time. My nephew made the announcement yesterday that he and his wife are expecting a baby in June.

I hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as mine.

HOW WERE YOU blessed this Thanksgiving?

© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

A Psalm of Thanksgiving November 25, 2010

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PSALM 147: 7 – 9

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;

Autumn window, Valley Grove Church, rural Nerstrand

make music to our God on the harp. (An organ will do if you don’t have a harp.)

Immanuel Lutheran Church, rural Courtland, organ keys

He covers the sky with clouds;

Train near Lamberton

he supplies the earth with rain

and makes grass grow on the hills.

Cattle grazing along U.S. Highway 71 in southwestern Minnesota.

He provides food for the cattle

Silo and cornfield along U.S. Highway 71.

and for the young ravens when they call.

So... I didn't have a photo of ravens. These chickens from Prairie Winds Antiques in Springfield will have to substitute.

I hope, dear readers, that your Thanksgiving, your year, has been blessed with music, with sunshine following the rain, with green grass under your feet, with food for your table and, most of all, with the love of family and of friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Holy Bible, New International Version

Photos © Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Together let’s make this harvest season safe October 7, 2010

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Bishop Jon Anderson, Southwestern Minnesota Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, blesses the Prahl family.

 

SEVERAL WEEKS AGO I wrote about a Tractor Roll-in and Harvest Blessing Service at Trinity Lutheran Church in rural Gaylord.

Yesterday I received my September 30 issue of The Gaylord Hub, a community newspaper where I worked for two years right out of college. Even after three decades removed from Gaylord, I’m still interested in the happenings in this small town.

As I paged through the issue, I came across a photo on page four from the Trinity harvest blessing service. Pastor William Nelsen had e-mailed the same image, and several others, to me. But they were just sitting in my in-box and I wasn’t sure I would ever publish them on Minnesota Prairie Roots.

But then, yesterday, that blessing service photo in The Hub, followed by a story two pages later, prompted me to write this post. The news article shared information about an accident in which a farmer’s clothing became entangled in a power take off driven rotor shaft. The farmer sustained severe head, chest and arm injuries and was airlifted from the scene. The irony of the harvest blessing photo and the farm accident story publishing in the same issue of The Hub was not lost on me.

Yes, harvest season is well underway here in southern Minnesota. And with it comes the added danger of accidents on the farm and on roadways. Farmers are tired, stressed, overworked.

Motorists are impatient and in a hurry.

This time of year we all need to take great care as we’re out and about in rural Minnesota. If you get “stuck” behind a combine or a tractor or a slow-moving grain truck, exercise caution and don’t be in such an all-fired hurry to zoom around the farm machinery.

If you’re a farmer, please use proper signage, turn signals and flashing lights and stick to the edge of the roadway as much as you can. Bulky farm machinery limits a motorist’s ability to see around you, which can lead to accidents.

Together, with understanding and patience and, yes, even consideration, farmers and non-farmers can join in making this a safer harvest season.

 

 

Pastor Bill Nelsen blesses the Klaers family and their harvest during the service.

 

 

Pastor Bill Nelsen blesses the Kahle-Giefer family and their harvest. Farmers drove about 40 tractors and combines to the worship service attended by 200-plus worshipers.

 

 

I snapped this harvest photo along a rural road near Northfield on Sunday afternoon.

 

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Photos courtesy of Margie Nelsen