Oklahoma Memories

3 Masa’il 163 B.E. - December 14, 2006

I was born and raised in Oklahoma, so I have many fond and not very good memories of the state and the towns of that state. I think the two types of memories go hand-in-hand. My favorite Oklahoma Memories are of winter. The nights were especially beautiful. You could see the stars clear and bright and make out the constellations. Most of the highways between the towns and cities were two lane blacktop or dirt roads. In the cities and towns there were streetlights, but on the highways and roads in between none.

One winter memory is of snow. We lived in Blackwell and my Grandparents lived in a house across from the airport. When it snowed the ground and road between my Grandparents house and the horizon was completely white. I could look out their front room window see an unbroken field of snow until the city snowplows came to clear the road. The snowplows would drive down the street pushing the snow out of the way and then the road would be clear all day. At night, it would snow again and the next morning the city would have to clear the road again. Thinking back it seems like such a waste of time and energy to clear all that snow, when the plow would have to do it again the next morning.

However, this reflects certain aspects of my life. The concepts and fears I’ve carried from childhood are the snow that falls covering the joy and new ideas that I’ve acquired in adulthood. The meditation and prayer are the snowplows clearing the road of those old concepts. We have to continue clearing out the old to make way for the new, if we don’t then the old just piles up and up until the road is block altogether.

Since my birthday is approaching, I’ve been attempting to clear out some of the old, outdated and self-defeating concepts. It seems a never-ending job, but I know that if I keep trying eventually I’ll get the job done.

The photo was taken when I was in high school.