1872- Emerson's house burns

A tradegy has overcome me and my family today. Our home burst into flames and burnt to the ground. I understand that random tradegy is inevitable in life, that we cannot get away from it. That this fire, may be a lesson from the all mighty to show us that we can always have room for purification. Material items never last. The clothes on your back, the roof over your head, the floor beneath your feet, the toys your kids play with, can all disappear in seconds. This life is not meant to be lived surrounded by four walls and a roof, but lived out in the very creation of the one who created us all! And today in loss, I am reminded of this.

1853- Mother dies at 84 years old

After growing strong and tall, branching out and bearing much fruit of her own, including me, living 84 beautiful, harmonious years, she is gone. At rest is her soul in the clouds of the sky with father, Ellen, and Waldo. Her life leaves behind a trail, each step along the way leaves imprints in the lives and hearts of so many, especially mine. I listen to the pitter-patter of the creek below and am reminded of the sound of her foot steps through the kitchen, working so hard and long to feed the family. My mother has not left, rather become one with the forest. One with all of nature, and it's surroundings. One with her ture love, one with the creator himself.

July 10, 1844- Edward Waldo is born

Although I have lost a piece of land, I seem to gain another one and could not be happier. A boy was granted to me today. What a great day! that Edward Waldo would be granted to me! The sun is shinning, the sky is clear and blue, and the birds are singing melodies. Before a butterfly can flourish, and becomes a beautiful creature, it starts as a ordinary caterpillar. I hold this new bundle of joy, this caterpillar in my arms. I hope and pray that I can prepare and raise it well, so it may flourish and develop into a stronger, bigger, beautiful butterfly, ready to spread his wings and fly away into the world.
I am so proud of my other kids and where they are flourishing. Ellen is now five years of age, and Edith is two, almost three years of age. Ellen has begun to branch out like a beautiful tree, and slowly in time she says goodbye to her childish things, fairy princesses and folk tales and begins to grasp onto maturity and new ideas. She has become quite the little helper around the home, the same way, lady bugs help plants grow by eating aphids. Edith is a bundle of energy, running from corner to corner of the house like a little squirrel scurrying through the forest. I pray that I may raise, and tend my fields to the fullest possible potential.

1842-Waldo dies of Scarlet Fever

Death has very much become a theme through out my life. After losing my father, and my first love, I lose my one and only son. Disease crept into his life and killed his flourishment till death. I tried to hide from pain like an owl hides from the sun but no matter how hard I try, dawn kept breaking each day. And with every new dawn, my heart shattered a little bit more. I know it was Waldo's time to move on, the same way birds migrate each winter. I know that in the death of this field I will see growth in other fields, including my own. I must constantly remind myself that life for myself is not over, that I must let this fire shape me, not incinerate me. So, that through experiences I can dig deep and grow closer to the creation and the creator, rather than fall back.

Nov. 22 1841-Edith is born

Another field of grass has been given to me, to tend, trim and develop. We named her Edith. I am blessed beyond measure to own three beautiful healthy fields of grass. I continue to seek to do my best to the tend the needs of grass and shape the growth coming from it. Just like sun and water affect the growth and development of all three of my kids, but I will continue to be the best gardener and father that I know how to be, and control and limit the amounts the grass is saturated with light or water.

Feb. 24 1839- Ellen is born

Less than three years after being blessed by the birth of Waldo my son, I am blessed by the birth of a daugther. Ellen, in memory of my first wife is the name I have chosen for my new child. The grass may have died for the long and lonely winter, but it has returned to me, younger, fuller and greener than ever. My job is to water her and help nurture and provide for her so she can grow into a long healthy summer of a life. As the gardener of the grass, I can trim and cut and control the growth and death of every strand of grass. When weeds and pollution begin to overtake it, I can seclude it and nurse it back to health and well-being.

Oct. 30 1836-Birth of Waldo

Today the heavens have blessed me with a child. A son, a boy who I will raise to fill the shoes of his father. I shall commit to raise this boy up by the principles of truth. Teaching him the ways of nature and showing him divine inner peace. To look at life from a new perspective, although death occurs as a natural process in nature, I see the joys in birth and beginnings. The beginning of not only Waldo's adventure through life, but the beginning of my adventure through fatherhood. May I provide for him like an animal provides for his cub.

1835- marries Lydia Jackson

My heart leaps once again. I have met and found true love again in Lydia Jackson. The life cycle continues. As animals seek out there mate, reproduce, and raise there offspring, I have once again found my mate. I will continue on, a lion in the night, I will pursue Lydia. She shall be wife, the mother lion, and I shall be father lion, the husband. I am dominant to her, and rely soulfully on myself.
I will not forget the one who first made my heart leap for joy, I will not lose heart, I will not forget my Ellen. She lives in my heart forever. By beginning to a new journey and a new path, I do not leave her behind, but rather take our memories like a baby kangaroo in my pouch, and move on to a new beginning with Lydia.

Feb. 8 1831- Ellen dies at 19

Not even two years after we began our journey I lost my dear sweet Ellen to the battle of tuberculosis. Her loss aches my heart but my mind sees the pattern and cycle in life. Birth, life, death. Everyone cycles through them in different timings. A fish may live a year, and a tree may live hundreds of years before the inevitable death. Her life was very much like that of a flower. She grew and sprouted and flourished, but slowly she began to fade away. And as each petal fell, she became weaker and weaker and more susceptible to death. Till here was no more water to drink for lief, she withered away with one final goodbye.
I retreat to the woods in this time to contemplate birth and death and everything in between. What will I live to see? Will my life reflect that of harmonies connection or dried away discourse?

Sept. 1829 Marries Ellen Tucker

Love has swept into my heart, which follows the tune in harmony wiht Ellen Tucker, my newly made wife. She is a creation of beauty. The virtue of God has been placed on her shoulders as she shines outwardly through the creation she is of God. Just as nature is beautiful in every moment, so is she. As a fire burns with great intensity, our relationship grows warmer. An everlasting candle burns in our hearts for one another. Mountain top after mountain we cannot seem to climb any higher into the clouds. Marriage, a unity of hearts, the way the water and the fish live together in harmony.

1824- Dedication to Religious Studies

I have choosen my path through this life, the coarse I will follow like as falling leaf chooses it's coarse to the ground. I dedicate myself to the wind, the water, and the very nature of God himself. This is my journy unlike the journey's of anyone else. Each start takes it's own route through the dark abyss as I will walk in reliance of myself through this life. Stepping out of society to hear the tune of my heart and follow it.

May 12, 1811- Father dies of Stomach Cancer

My father is gone; death was evident. At an age of only eight I have become the man of the house, after stomach cancer plagued my father for sometime now.
Death for no reason should sadden a man. For death, like birth is a natural process in nature. God gives life and equally he can take it back. Just as there is something beautiful in birth, there is something beautiful in death. The plantation of a seed, it's grown and it's passing in nature; a man's birth, life and death; are a process through life. In the same way, when a seed does not grow, or a plant is stunted, nature has it's purpose. In my father's passing, I do not see death, but a passing, not an ending, but a passageway, a natural process with a spiritual following.
The leaves on the trees, which become a vibrant orange every fall, my Dad lived and grew into his life. He did not leave quietly, but with a vibrant ending for he all of his leaves. And when the leaves faded to winter, so did my father.