11/02/21 THE TREASURE OF THE PIZER (the porch)

11/02/21 THE TREASURE OF THE PIZER (the porch)

I feel sorry for people who did not grow up with a house porch (pizer as it was called along this part of the N.C. coast), front, back or wrap around.
I feel sorry for folks who did not grow up in a neighborhood, which was actually like an extended family.
I realize that there are other models which folks hold in high esteem.

This is not an attack on other experiences. However, I do recognize the important impact a porch and loving community has on a healthy view of life and society. Old and young, saved and unsaved, male and female often sit together enjoying swings, rocking chairs, gliders or just letting their feet hang off the edge of the porch.

Fun talk, family talk, fishing talk, weather talk, church talk, Christian witness takes place, knitting, net mending, sewing or just whittling on the pizer.

Relaxation, dreaming out loud, meal planning, corn shucking, bean snapping, reminiscing, are all part of sitting on the porch, as well as drinking in the quiet, soaking up the peace or slipping into a quiet sleep.
The porch is not a bully pulpit or a political stump. It is not a place for anger, rancor, division, self assertion. Sitting on the porch should be like sitting together in heavenly places.
Porch sitting is an oasis, a safe haven from the storm. It is where great truths are communicated in colloquialisms and ancestral idioms. A place where the young learn from the elders, just by listening. A place where parents sit and watch children and grandchildren play safely and happily in the yard, the field or the garden.

The community factor on the porch is important, but there is also the private, personal, reflective quiet times spent by individuals, aside from the voice of others and clamor of a fitful world. 

The porch is a place for believers to gather after worship or Bible study or fellowship; a place for a couple of folks to share their concerns, their hopes with each other. A place where someone can seek God, talk to God, hear from God.

Sometimes we need, "alone time," and more often we need time alone with God. I am hoping to have a porch soon, as a place for my family and friends to stop by and visit with each other and with God.