OLD CHURCH AT WATROUS

Photo by Mil, 1968

 LIFE IS  A DOOR TO SOMEWHERE
 ********************************

That day, forty-seven years ago

I had been to Ft. Union on a
   picture-taking trip.

Had an award-winning photo of
    an old wagon, in my Rollei
         but didn't know it yet!

Passing under that umbrella of trees,
    hanging over the highway

I came into Watrous, a N.M.village
    of mostly deserted
          buildings
but some houses here and there---
     inhabited.

Off the highway a piece, and nestled
     cozily under some weeping,
          hanging-type trees

I spied an old rock church, not in
    bad shape...with a new roof!

People still worshipped there!

I drove off the road, and under the
     shady, hanging limbs...
opened my windows, and sat there
     in the front seat...resting
          a bit, from the trip...

Sadly, I have now forgotten the name
     of the church, but remember---
          it was Methodist...

Half dozing there is the cool mountain air
     and studying that place...
I fancied I could hear voices from a
     hundred years ago---

"Brethren we have met to worship
     and adore the Lord our God...
Will you pray with all your power
    while we try to preach the word?

All is vain unless the Spirit of the
    Holy One comes down...
Brethren pray and holy manna
     will be scattered all around!"

(Good singing, I thought in my
     reverie---the Methodists
         have always been--
           good hymn singers!)

Then as if from far off time and .
    history...the strains of a
       great Isaac Watts hymn---

" A thousand ages in Thy sight
     are like an evening gone...
Short as the watch that ends the night,
     before the rising sun."

Much taken by this rustic, historic place,
    the scene mesmerized me.

But what caught my eye was the ornate
     door latch to the church.

Life, in fact, is filled with "door latch"
     options galore---we've heard of
"paths not taken" in life-- "wrong roads
     taken," "doors to open...or not..."

"Church doors are good doors to open,"
     I thought as I took a picture of the latch..
and...the pic has always been a little blurry…
   

Kind of symbolic of "door latches and
    decisions," hard to make...
        but never into a church...
            of course,

There are so many thoughts that go thru
    the mind, as one stands at an
        old church door--and ornate latch--
            both more than a
                hundred years old...

It was time to go...and I left reluctantly...
    and in my imagination, as I drove
         from under the weeping-branches
              that day, I thought I heard
                  believers from decades
                      ago, singing...

"On Jordan's stormy banks I stand
     and cast a wishful eye
To Canaan's fair and happy land
     where my possessions lie!

I am bound for the promised land
   I am bound for the promised land;
O who will come and go with me,
    I am bound for the promised land."

It was a memorable trip.
***************
BY MIL
April 19, 2015