Digging Carrots

By Vicki Correll

These poems and short stories intersect the experience of living in rural America with struggles and doubts of coming to faith in

an age of skepticism and doubt. Having to deal with common, often mundane chores, brings moments of understanding and

clarity. In contrast, having to deal with frailties of human nature can often muddy the

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookTrail Publishing
• Release date: Feb 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781637670415

Vicki Correll

Vicki moved to northeast Oregon with her husband and daughter in 1976 and bought 20 acres at thebase of the Blue Mountains. This short collection of poems is about living in rural America and the impactthat lifestyle has had on their faith life and the need for (almost) daily conversion.She now gardens, writes, teaches religious education, keeps house and home together and of course, readsa lot. She has two daughters and two small granddaughters.

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 Vicki Correll.

Paperback: 978-1-63767-042-2

eBook: 978-1-63767-041-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021900016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Kansas City, MO 64114

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Introduction

SECTION 1: ON THE FARM

Salvation for a Moment in the Barn

Protected

A Dead Duck

Magenta Hollyhock

Digging Carrots

Performance

Between the Sea and Sky

SECTION 2: POPULAR HERESIES

Anarchy

Early Spring Writing Retreat

Orphans in America

Lovin’ Ain’t Like Givin’

The Ironies Are Like the Furies

It’s All Natural

A Dream of Jealousy and Love

SECTION 3: ORGANIZED FAITH

Time Standing Still: Saying the Rosary

Waiting for Jesus

The Incarnation

A Rosary for My Girl, and Grace Enters In

Who Is the Elephant?

To Joseph of Arimathea Who, Though He Was a Member of the Council, Did Not Consent to Their Plan

SECTION 4: INTELLIGENT DESIGN

What is Intelligent Design?

Introduction

These pieces have been written over the span of many years. The oldest were written when we first moved to our property in N.E. Oregon, about forty years ago. Others, more recently. These poems are a witness to the struggle, the questioning and the doubt which inevitably accompanies faith. As I graduated from a State University and received my degree in English, I was consistently bombarded with the cynicism so prevalent in the lecture hall and classroom. Since that time the cynicism has become more entrenched in our culture and those who are thinking or wondering about the possibility of there actually being God have to fight a steep assent, fraught with many hurdles, to get to a place where their faith is a given dynamic in their lives. At that time I bought into the skepticism: in my life-style, my language, my morals, and my arrogance. But behind all that there was a niggle way way back in the recesses of my mind that remembered stories from sermons in church and lessons in Sunday school. And those stories were always there. In fact, I would use them to add credibility to my life-style: one time when my mother wanted me to dress more modestly (as I didn’t believe in bras and had quite a shapely figure) I quoted the story of the woman caught in adultery and whoever was without sin…bla bla bla. My mother did not have the wherewithal to respond with but go and sin no more. (As I would now if someone said that to me – like my daughters or God-children.)

I have submitted pieces over time to competitions and for publishing and have been rewarded with a few commendations or notice but mostly, I have received rejection notices. Also, I have attended writing workshops or conferences and have been handily put in my place for bringing this material to the fore. I find it curious that just the mention of God or Christ raises such hackles. In the world we live in now, in the 21st Century, dictated by political correctness, tolerance is the mantra. But tolerance for the faith that formed the best of our culture is rejected out-of-hand by most of the Academy who, by the way, has been extremely successful at teaching these anti-religious views to the generations that pass through their doors. I have a suspicion that this strong aversion to the bedrock of Western Society has something to do with some kind of unconscious self-hatred Because of these observations and because I am getting on in years and am experiencing effects of Parkinson’s disease, I think it’s time to bite the humble pill and admit I don’t have the tenacity, energy or motivation to go through all the hard work that accompanies trying to get published.

But beyond that, I am self-publishing this short collection because we are all so confused (– we the corpus of society and we the individuals in that society) about basic things, the need for consistency of thought, the need to honor the red flags that pop up, for common sense, for the idea, that though a cliché the best things in life are free, and for the reality that we never (never) know when those moments will arise. We cannot orchestrate them; we cannot create movies or books or clothes or houses or even family and friends that will fulfill the yearning that satisfies completely. That confusion is magnified by the accomplishments of science and technology that has given human beings so many rewards. The lives of our ancestors were so much harder than ours have been that the comparison is a moot point. We might in some political sense be peasants as they were (we have very little real power in the political world) but we certainly have power to design our lives in such a way that makes them more comfortable. This has a huge impact on our view