Daily musings episode 1: WW3, the old days, ordinary life

The alarm went off at 4am-rise and shine. You gotta do what you gotta do to survive. Hubby left for work at 4:30 am. We are thankful he has a job. Finally after 3 years of putting in job applications he was hired at a nursing home for the mentally disabled. He works in the kitchen. Despite all his experience in law-enforcement working for a foreign government -no one would hire him in Japan because of his age. 

He likes his new job-said he feels useful and he marvels at how happy the residents always are despite their circumstances. God is good. 

I dozed for a while - hitting the snooze button a few times before I finally got up to get myself ready for work. The kitchen was cold- no central heating system in most houses in Japan. Hot coffee felt good in my hands. There was a message from my uncle in Germany.....and news headlines....about the rumbles of WW3....

wow

I read over the article, no fear but, great concern. 

My mind drifted to the past. I closed my eyes and let  my thoughts travel back in time. I was a child sitting in the kitchen of my great Uncle Henrich. The kitchen table was tucked into a u-shaped nook with windows that looked out over the sprawling vegetable gardens and orchards of their country home. The house seemed as if it had always been old. Modest in size with a gabled roof, dusty old attic, field-stone basement and a nook hidden under the eves on the second floor. From about the 1920's the house was part of my childhood and I loved visiting there. The handful had immigrated to America from Germany. My parents the last ones in 1958. 

the kitchen where all the stories were told

The grown-ups would sit around the table with coffee, streussel kuchen, apples from the orchard and other delights that were made at home and brought to share. Tante Toni (Antonia), Uncle Heinrich, Tante Frieda, Mr. and Mrs. Schoenauer, My parents and sometimes Uncle Eberhard would all gather on a Sunday. I'd sit on someones lap, mostly Uncle Heinrich's...and my ears would be wide open. 

So often they would talk about the war....WW2 . They would tell the stories over and over again They would talk of who lived in which town and what happened to them. They talked of the hardships and how they survived. They talked about my grandparents sitting around the kitchen table before the war started. They lived in a small town in West Germany. There was no television or other entertainment so in the evenings the neighbors would come over and talk about their crops, hunting or the latest gossip. Then the rumors started. Rumors of war and of course in the beginning no one believed it! But the rumors persisted. Sometimes they would all sit in silence listening to the news on the radio. The drumbeats of war growing louder. The men mulling things over while the women made themselves busy at the sink. No one really wanted to think about it, about what a war would mean. 

But they found out all too soon. 

I remember those days sitting with my chin on the kitchen table in Uncle Henrich's kitchen listening and trying to understand. The stories permeated my life as I was growing up and I never took anything for granted because the stories taught me that anything could happen at any time and life could forever change in an instant. 

my father, my great aunt and uncle

I opened my eyes and glanced at the headlines once more : -EUROPE PREPARES FOR WW3 AS GERMANY REVEALS NATIONAL DEFENSE PLAN- and I wondered....is this our time? Our time to sit around the kitchen table and listen in disbelief as the drumbeats of world war grow louder? 

7:00 AM! No more time to daydream I had a train to catch. I have a very small English conversation class in the neighboring town. I've actually been wanting to close it for a while now because there are only 2 students but ....they are 2 elderly ladies who have been with me for over 10 years...wow, 10 years! They do not want it to end. I think it has become so much a part of their lives that ending it would leave a hole in their routines and social lives. So, we continue. The setting is beautiful. We rent a little space in a 150 year old historical home that once belonged to one of the ten "coal mine kings" of this area. 

The garden area. 

The house has several sections. 

Entrance to the garden area. 

There are several small courtyards. 

One of the tatami rooms. 

We walked along the veranda to look at the garden. 

The front entrance 

We gather here twice a month on Friday. Sometimes we do a craft. Sometimes we just chat. Today we chatted about ....war...and our parents and their memories. But- we also decided that it was important to live each day to the fullest. We thought it was a good idea to keep a daily journal about normal things. Just daily life but at the same time track events on the world stage because after all we are witnessing history being made. 

All this written here will go into my journal. Do you journal? I have filled several journals over the years. They are going to my grandkids someday when I leave this pale blue dot that is suspended in space. 

I'm not afraid of the future because I feel that the only really safe place is in my relationship with the Lord. We can be sitting 10 feet underground in a bunker and if we do not have a relationship with the Lord, if when we die He says...I never knew you....then we are not safe. When we have a relationship with the Father in Heaven we can be standing on the front lines and rest-assured that we are safe and sound - no matter what happens. 

After class hubby picked me up-he got off at noon. We had a lovely lunch together at the Chinese restaurant in the mall, did some shopping and then went home to relax until dinner which is now so I should get going and get the meal ready. 

I am thankful for the peace we are living in today. 

God bless -