Toma Lodge

    In times past there were many more opportunities for man to commune with nature without going far out of his way. Natural and peaceful surroundings make it easy to observe God's handiwork, and prayer seems to arise with little effort as a response. These kinds of opportunities are becoming more and more scarce in our modern world. In the years we have lived in this community, I have been blessed to have a beautiful semi-private park, complete with trails, and a little stream available to me. I have availed myself of this privilege for many years and it has been a solace to me, just knowing I could go there when I need to be alone to walk and pray. Our community has just learned that this park has been sold and that it will soon become a residential development. The following expresses my feelings about this great loss.

In Memory of Toma Lodge

    After all these years, your magnificent 100-acre woods will be stripped and paved, and you will become a residential development. In another time you served as an old-fashioned Chautauqua, where politicians and poets spoke, while ladies with long skirts and ruffles and parasols were driven in their buggies by gentlemen dressed in fine suits and ties and hats. In later days you were an inviting place of retreat for groups of various sorts. Of late, folks are drawn to your jogging trails and scenic beauty. Now the changing times have caught up with you.

    I wonder how many others have walked your trails and enjoyed your beauty from season to season, thankful to have such a lovely place to get away and meditate? For many years I have considered you one of my loveliest and dearest friends. You have been a true blessing and I am much richer for having known you.

    The wildlife love you too, and you have been their home for generations. I enjoyed watching the woodpeckers and bluejays, turtles and squirrels, and once even a graceful deer, playing on your hallowed grounds.

    I cannot recall how many years it has been since you became my personal prayer garden. And what a garden you are! In the summer you are in full dress, and green is your favorite color. Your paths become cathedrals when the boughs of your trees stretch across and touch each other. Autumn transforms you into a glowing tabernacle of praise. Hues of transparent red and gold, like incandescent lights from heaven, adorn you as the sap retreats, and the glory of your trees is reflected in their radiant leaves. In the winter your colorful dress falls to the earth, and naked, yet unashamed, you come to your time of rest and preparation for renewal.

    As restless as a child on Christmas Eve are the final weeks of winter, anticipating your most glorious season of all, and you never disappoint us. Your greatest grandeur is displayed in the spring. Your winding road is impressively bedecked with a fragrant offering of bouquets of flowers as beautiful and grand as nature can provide. You offer your beauty without embarrassment, to every passerby. How could anyone observe nature's beauty such as is seen in you, and not acknowledge the existence of an all-wise God?

    But greater than my admiration of your aesthetic charms, dear friend, I will miss the sacred times I've spent within the sanctuary of your borders. I call you friend because you've overheard the secrets of my heart, and my private praise and prayer to God. I have walked your paths and talked to Him in times of great joy, and in times of sorrow so deep my prayers had no audible expression. You have seen my smile and you have felt my pain, and you discreetly kept it to yourself. On my walks, I have felt Christ Himself beside me, both in the fresh morning air and in the cool of the evening. Most cherished are my memories of you.

    Your life has been rich and full. You have served us well. I will mourn your passing, and oh how I will miss you! I will remember you always, and I am most grateful to your former owners for their generosity in allowing such as me to have known you. Goodbye dear friend.

Copyright Daphne Harrington 2000