In Another Life...

I always wanted to grow up and marry a farmer. Ask anyone who has known me since, oh, I don't know, about the age of three and they will tell you it's true.

I came to this knowledge quite early in life.

It happened one day, while traveling down the Imperial Highway, bordered by rows of green "something", lettuce or cabbages perhaps, I'm not sure of the crops since I was scarcely a toddler. I put my hands on the window in wonder and love, caressing the glass, as if it might bring that beautiful scenery closer.

That was it... the moment I knew my personal destiny. Do you ever feel as if some things are just meant to be? I do.

I never did marry the farmer, but God was kind enough to give me one in the form of a son, and he made sure I found the farm of my primordial dreams.

Tonight as I sit quietly alone, I can't help but reflect over the past.

Outside, the tree frogs are chirping placidly in the brook beyond the orchard and the sun in starting to set over a yonder hill. It's time to lock up the hens, pour some milk for the barn cats and take a moment to breathe in the solitude.

Scarlet and lavender hues begin to kiss the previously azure sky, somehow blending the colors together as if on some Divine pallet of wispy cirrus vapor.

All around, the birds are singing avian hymns in the trees, like a choir of tiny angels in a temple paradise. The air is moist and cool, the wind barely discernible against my face, and the grass, having long last emerged from the snow, is newly green with life under my feet.

I step past the pretty Jonquils emerging in the little graveyard, the holy ground holding the remains of a pioneer mother, her infant son and toddler boy, resting not far from the brother, who in years past labored hard in the fields with his scythe and plow. They are all in another place now, hopefully one of peace.

Above me, the limbs on the trees are laden with buds, swollen and round, ready to give birth to their blossoms and leaves.

It is spring, a season of resurrection and hope, of beauty and joy.

It is my home.