WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7On our way to a lecture on Race and Culture in Medical Ethics I found today's picture. I admire these guys. They could be out making mischief, but they are making music. I like their spirit. Once again the picture for today has nothing to do with the text I've included in the BLOG. "The Story About Trees" was sent to me by my friend Taylor Hill, a retired Presbyterian pastor living in Florida. He sent it because he knows I have been preoccupied with trees lately.
A STORY ABOUT TREES

Back in the early 1970's Bob Owens, my Mom and Dad's pastor in Charlotte, N. C., received a call to become pastor of a church in Dallas, Texas. Bob and his wife Norma made a trip to Dallas and met with the committee, who extended an invitation on the spot for Bob to become their new pastor. They told the church they would give them their answer in a few days.

On the way home Norma mentioned that, although she loved the church, the people, and the opportunity, she did not know if she could live in Dallas that was so barren of the beautiful trees she had comed to love so in Charlotte. That night they were out to dinner and over heard another couple at the next table also discussing a possible move, ironically from Dallas to Charlotte. The woman was saying to her husband she didn't know if she would be able to live in a place with all these trees. She had become accustomed to the wide open spaces and felt crowded in.

Well that was enough sign for Norma and she agreed to go to Dallas. After serving in Dallas and Hawaii, they are now retired in Charlotte with their beloved trees, and a few grandchildren.