Don’t jump to conclusions

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We are all blessed with the faculties of mind endowed by our creator to allow us to reason.

Now some folks, as my late mother would say, stood behind the door when God was giving out good sense, and that would also expand to reason.

I have seen people all my life faced with situations and they jump to a conclusion and pull folks into their prejudice or the negative Spirit within them based upon their life experiences.

Without evidence they gossip about someone or accuse someone of something that offends them in some manner.

We find these kinds of folks in all walks of life, those can inhabit our work place, our church, our school but especially these folks live to type on social media.

There is no repercussions for typing away whatever one assumes about someone.

Sadly, families are sometimes the worst hive of folks that jump to conclusions about someone they are suppose to love. In some cases, the love is suppose to be unconditional. That circumstance is generally within one’s immediate clan. The extended clan gets a bit of grace because they are removed from the unconditional assumption, but the benefit of the doubt is still expected. Blood is thicker than water as they say.

What is it we lose when we jump to a conclusion without evidence and then act upon it. It usually results in hurting someone’s reputation, or their feelings, or both. Depending on how serious these things are, it could also impact them financially, socially or even legally.

Because we have the ability to move the world with our words and our Spirit pushing upon other people’s, we must be cautious of what we say about others and the conclusions we draw based upon a set of circumstances.

Now, that does not mean we should not reason with the evidence we see to protect ourselves and those we love, it just means, we should not rush to judgment and speak upon someone publicly unless we know beyond the shadow of the doubt that the evidence we have seen is conclusive. Even then, is it our job to be the spokesperson of this news?

Did God make us His orator? Or have we taken it upon ourselves as a gossiper? Does telling the story bring us joy or excitement? Then we may not be God’s chosen orator.

If he has chosen you to speak ill about someone in any situation, that is something that you will not want to do. In fact, you will desire not to do it so much, you will avoid it. You will only do so, when you have no other choice.

As children we all learned to jump rope in some fashion. Some of us excelled at it and were able to even rhythmically jump while rhyming with great speed. While many of us enjoyed seeing or participating in this play, we all had the good sense to only join the activity if we were capable of not getting our feet caught in the rope.

We should use a similar approach to jumping to conclusions. Make sure you have the ability not to get yourself or someone else tripped up on what you tongue might be saying about your conclusion.

The lights of the season

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I climbed up the stairs to the attic and in a way it did reflect the season, as all throughout there was a covering of white. It was insulation instead of snow but it did put thing in mind, as I crawled around in the space finding the boxes with Christmas decorations.

I would hand them down one by one to my mother or dad in alternating fashion as we prepared to begin the annual tradition of making the homestead more festive.

The boxes would pile up in the living room as each one awaited emptying.

We had foregone real trees for the an artificial years before. I was tasked for placing each branch in its appropriate hole in the trunk and shaping it.

Before long it would be ready for ornaments, lights, icicles, and eventually the star on top.

The process went fairly fast considering it all had to come out of boxes and placed with care until it glistened and gleamed with the shine of the season.

After the tree, then came all the special additions around the house. Each table got a Christmas doily, a Christmas candle, and maybe some hand made decoration to draw the eye.

The cards would get their very own clothes line that stretched across the wall with each displayed to add to the season.

We didn’t have a fireplace, although for a few seasons, we had a brick lined box with and electric light within its hearth which would add a glow to the living room.

When the inside was just as mother wanted it, my father and I were dispatched to the exterior attraction.

Which meant all the front bushes would each have their own colored lights some flashing and some solid. A wreath of greenery with red ribbon would be added to the front door.

One of my favorite pieces that is now long lost to time was a large lighted face of Santa Claus which was always placed last hanging on a trellis of holly by our door.

Christmas in my mind’s eye is always more colorful, more vibrant and ever so more festive than each one that seems to pass these days.

Perhaps, I recall things much better than they were or I don’t recognize the beauty around me at present as much.

Maybe the absence of many who brought life so much joy dims the present over the past.

It makes a challenge in my heart that I must strive to be more mindful of those that are with us who can bring life to each and every moment of the holidays.

Use the coming season to uplift and enrich your heart by bringing joy to all God sends your way!

I’m on my way back to the old home

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The holidays always bring a sense to me within my soul. It’s a desire to go home and spend time with the family and old friends in familiar environs.

For me a peace comes over me when open horizons turn to mountain hillsides and tight roads winding between them back into the hollers. The farm houses stand upon the high points leaving what bit of flat there is for growing crops.

Smoke rises from the chimneys as I wind up through the valley to reach the old home place that sheltered our family for nearly two hundred years.

On the porch as I reach the drive are my grandmother and grandfather finishing the hanging of the greens to decorate the outside of the house.

The interior will already be filled with the smells and the vision of hundreds of Christmases – stockings on the mantle, a fresh cut tree with all types of handmade decorations hanging from the limbs.

Sadly, the vision I see today is only in my mind’s eye as the old home place is now someone else’s and the older generations that once gathered at it’s hearth are now resting beneath the family sod.

This year I chose to make my journey to my musical home place. So much of my life and mentoring came from the musical lineage of the Father of Bluegrass Music – Bill Monroe and his Uncle Pen Vandiver. The lineage is sort of mine as they both were my mother’s cousins. I was so blessed as a teen when Bill took me on to mentor my fiddling and my band leading.

So, I decided to go back to his hometown of Rosine, Ky. To visit. I was blessed in that my old friend Marty Hays and his wife Robin hosted my visit at the Bill Monroe Homeplace. The restored home has many of the aspects of the home that Bill knew as a boy. Each room offers a unique look into the warm fires that once burned in the fireplaces.

In one of his songs “I’m On My Way Back to the Old Home,” he tells a story of the Homeplace.

That today also hosts the annual Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Festival. I hope that you will take the time to add it to your plans for 2025. It’s a wonderful show with many of the top talents of bluegrass being there.

During my visit, I was blessed to also take in the Uncle Pen’s Cabin – owned by James Monroe, and the Bill Monroe Museum. I went to the Rosine Cemetery and paid my respects to Bill, Uncle Pen and all the Monroe clan.

To help make the visit a musical connection back to my time touring with his Blue Grass Boys, I celebrated my 40th Anniversary with a concert at the Rosine Barn Jamboree accompanied by the talents of The Rosine Sound. This talented group includes Marty Hays, Jasper Dale Beatty, Larry Hill and Dylan Lunsford. It was an uplifting show and with their help I played many of the tunes that I had shared with Bill.

Meeting the people of Rosine and enjoying the warm welcome they offered was similar to the mind’s eye vision I described at the beginning of my piece. I may not be able to recreate those days that stand in my memory, but I sure can make them over in news ways.

I encourage you, if your wishing to take a trip and find both good folks and some interesting places to see look towards https://www.ohiocounty.com/billmonroe . Learn more about my history with Bill Monroe at https://RandallFranks.com/Bill-Monroe-and-the-Blue-Grass-Boys/ .