Dear Editor - - - In this season of great blessing, as I gaze at the photos of my friends and loved ones that have passed, I feel a deep wondering that feels like "What If?"

What if, in the One Great Love, our caring for each other reaches beyond time. What if right now, in this moment, I can feel all the love and hope my parents, grandparents and friends poured into me. What if I can feel it not just in memory but in actuality. It is engulfing me right now. Their prayers are not frozen in time but live on, in and through that Great Love. So that in this precious moment that is now, I am still receiving all that has passed?

And what if, miracles of miracles, the prayers of future generations can reach me too. What if I am a link to both the past and the future? What are these prayers from the future? How do they reach me?

For me, these prayers need not come as for the past from just a deep place within but come just as well from my heart felt response to the daily news. For example, last week I felt the shock of seeing a map of the entire United States published by the World Resources Institute indicating by colors the water stress of the various states. There were the light yellows, darker yellows and oranges. And as I expected appearing to top the list in bright red is California and Colorado. But then to my dismay, in the center of all the other colors In Dark Red is New Mexico. The report said, “New Mexico tops the list and is the only state with ‘Extremely High’ pressures on water availability.” And I imagined the future calling out, “Why didn’t you do more when you saw what was coming. Now, only the very rich among us can afford the water to wash clothes or dishes or even bath.”

And then I went to that deep place within to listen to the emotional voice of future prayers. And with surprise, I heard a child’s voice crying out to its parents, “Please stop fighting. Please stop blaming each other. Please stop hating. Don’t you see what future you are creating for me.”

And thus, I have have heard the prayers from the future and I have but to follow and obey. I know what I must do. I know what I must be. And thus, in the blessing of the season, I too have found my stewardship so I can serve the future as my parents have served my future.

This is my hope — Esta es mi esperanza

Gerry Scott - Grant County