It is New Year's Eve... the last day of 2004... The sun came up slowly this morning... filtering its gold rays slowly through the drifting silver of early morning Carolina winter fog.
Our neighbor's black bull is standing next to the barbed wire fence line at the crest of the hill looking for all the world like a biblical behemoth outlined in the drifting fog.
Looking up at the huge red oak trees... with the gold sunrise filtering through their leafless branches to mingle with the wisps of fog... I feel hot guilt at the feeling of wonder this scene brings me knowing that across the seas a war rages in Iraq... and that Indonesia's scarred lands have become a burial ground for countless thousands... There is heaviness in my heart in the midst of all this beauty.
In the newspaper this morning... I read that South Carolina has lost fourteen... so far... to the war in Iraq. A small number of sacrifices... two woman and twelve men... a small number but not to those who will forever be without these loved ones...
God... You have gifted me with lovely red apples... Give me the faith and the strength to pick out or chew the worms that they contain... By Faye Sizemore
Copyright December 31, 2004
Comment on this article About Author... Faye Sizemore makes her home in the beautiful foothills of South Carolina with Grant, the love of her life, as well as three dogs, two cats, two parakeets and four nanny goats. Grant is a Vietnam Veteran having served with the US Marines in 1968-69 and is, of course, Faye's muse. Faye is deeply interested in Veterans' Affairs and Veterans' Causes. She is very proud of Grant and her poetry is an off-shoot of that pride. Visit Faye Sizemore's site for more information | 
