Wiping sweat from my brow means it’s a good day.
To me there is nothing more therapeutic than sunshine (or rain), the movement of air through my hair and clothing, the sound of the trees rustling, and the music of the birds. I like to shovel, move animals, and pick things. When I step outside I can feel Mother Nature welcoming me into her world, beyond the confines of human made structures, and out into the open. It’s like I can breathe. Again…
All of our beautiful homes, sturdy barns and buildings, cars, and ‘stuff’ just slow the motion of her energy through our bodies.
I am sure that many of you, like me, spend more time inside at a desk than you would like to. We are people who work in agriculture; we know how it feels to be outside in very strong elements. It’s more than having to get from a car into a house or building. And we like it.
Lugging buckets, fixing gates, caring for an animal, just about all of it, we have done immersed in the best and worst weather imaginable. We appreciate the beautiful 70 degree days and embrace the horrid, snow swirling, below zero nights. It’s woven into the fabric of who we are and what we stand for. Agriculture. One with nature.
Some of you have continued in daily production and would give anything to be able to work inside on a stormy day instead of battle the elements.
Then there are those of us who used to farm everyday but now support agriculture through our work. We grew up laboring outside but for reasons that are different for each one of us have chosen to spend our days at a desk or in a pickup truck driving around the countryside helping farmers do their work. We are all very valuable, doing our part to help feed people.
Lately, with the added growth of the Morning Ag Clips, I have been inside within my office much more than usual. All of this work has been great but sometimes I feel very stifled when I am inside. It’s like I get numb from the consistency of temperature. I feel out of touch with my Mother Nature and I forget how alive I am able to feel–when I am outside.
How connected I feel–when I am outside.
I would like to share a poem with you, by Wendell Berry, that a friend of mine gave me many years ago that I stumbled on the other day. It’s a reminder to me of how much and why I feel the way I feel about being outside. And as I dive deeper and deeper into this most recent chapter of my life, this poem brings clarity about who I am and what makes me tick, in perfect time, with me.
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
It’s Halloween and there will be many wild things out there tonight. 🙂 And Mother Nature has a lot of rain in store for us here in the Northeast. While I trick-or-treat with Sam, I will be aware of how alive I feel in the rain and bluster, and will remind myself that Mother Nature is greeting me with love and just shouting at me to feel how alive it is outside with her.
Which I feel!! 🙂
Thank you god, for the outdoors…and man for Halloween candy!
With great love,
Kate
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