Fort GM

Fort GM
On our side of the pond there is a small point of land that in the past has been known as Stump Peninsula – I hereby change this to Gruntmonkey Point. The reason for this is because I have started building fires down there for the “grand” ones – better known as the gruntmonkeys. On an evening a few days back I had GM3, GM4 and GM6 over for one of these fires, to just sit around it and tell stories.

As we made our way down to the point the young ones noted that my stacks of firewood looked like a fort. We went on with the adventures of the evening but the thought stuck in my mind. After the fire and their efforts at defending the ‘fort’ we went back up to the house and did some late night swinging and sliding. They later went home very tired but happy little boys – I remained at my house a very tired but happy old man.

Time slid on through Halloween, the dawgs lost and we had exactly zero little goblins come to our door to get treats – both bummers! We live in the last house on our side of the street and the candy we would give evidently is not deemed to be worth the energy expended to take the extra steps to get to our place. It also poured down rain during most of the best time for those ventures.

Time wandered on through Sunday with a combined service – with inspired singing and a very meaningful message. We then exited to the upper parking lot for what we called Hope Fest – our substitute for Halloween festivities. We also had a chili cook-off and I was one of the many tasters and sampled several before I cast my vote. This voting narrowed the chilies down to six with three judges deciding the top one.

The event was massively attended with many events for young and old – also with lots of food. The Spice and I visited with lots of folks – some for the first time in a while. We finally wore down and headed for the house. Later that evening my stomach questioned my wisdom of tasting so many types of chili.

Monday arrived and I decided to act on the thought I got from the GMs – to build a ‘fort’. Three large trees shade this particular shore of the pond so I used these as supports for the firewood I stacked to make walls for the fort. I simply restacked the wood that was already there – I did so but still needed more to complete the ‘construction’. The solution was to split more wood to finish up the walls – so I did so.

The completed project was three walls stacked about 5 feet tall. The forth side was left open in order to feel the warmth of the fire. It has been named Fort Gruntmonkey. They were over again a couple of days later and imaginations ran wild. They had stopped by with pizza; we took it down to the Fort, chowed down and built a fire. With the amount of firewood down there this tradition could continue for a while.

Even though we as Christians are front line soldiers in a spiritual warfare, we need a ‘fort’ or safe place to go to rest or find help in time of need. We have this safe place in the presence of God and He wants us to come to Him anytime but especially when we have reached our limits of endurance. I’m so thankful He is always there to comfort and guide – we sometimes hesitate to go to Him – not sure why because God is good, all the time! ec