Jeff Hampton – Page 48 – Jeff Hampton, Writer

December 7, 2023

Fear, Hope and Light

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I went out at noon Wednesday to hang Christmas lights on the house and had to face one of my biggest fears. Not heights, not electricity. No, it was yellowjackets.

I waited until noon to catch the warmest part of the day, and when I clanked my aluminum extension ladder against the gutter at my usual starting point on the corner, I suddenly saw yellowjackets buzzing around the top of the ladder and wall and then me. I scooted away, my arms flailing to keep them off me, and then for the next half hour, I banged around the house with a broom trying to find out where the yellowjackets were coming from, but I couldn’t find a source.

November 30, 2023

Slow Down

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I just came in out of the rain after giving up on an errand to buy George Gagliardi one of those large plastic bags to cover and dispose of a Christmas tree when the season is over. You put the bag down around the trunk before you put it in the tree stand, and then you pull it up over the tree and it keeps the needles and sap from leaving a sticky messy path to your door as you drag it out. I was wanting to get the bag today because George doesn’t have a car, and tomorrow I’m going to help him get his tree into his apartment. It’s a decade-long tradition I enjoy very much.

November 21, 2023

Over the River and Through the Woods

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Sunday morning on the way to church, LeAnn asked if I ever sang the song “Over the River and Through the Woods” as a kid. I said I did, and then we pieced it together from our memories and began to sing it:

Over the river, and through the woods, 

To Grandmother’s house we go; 

The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh, 

Through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river, and through the woods, 

Oh, how the wind does blow! 

It stings the toes and bites the nose, 

As over the ground we go.