I am as enamored of space as I am of trees—almost!
I realize that there
are needs, opportunities and/or preferences as to living in the city or in the country. I was born in a rural area in southwestern
Minnesota. Imagine, if you will, the
1950s, before agri-business became ‘law of the land.’ There were endless open
spaces on small farms, one after the other, patterned with a variety of growing
things and animals, and only interspersed by tree-lined, long driveways and the
protective grove around a home, buildings, and yards that also seemed too big
for small kids sent out to do the chores.
Now look at the sea
of blue-blossoming flax fields, moving with the breezes, or the long rows of
beans, clean and straight, that invite your eyes to follow almost as far as the
horizon. Smell the air—sometimes
affected by manure, but not always—the
smell of threshed grain or, even, watch the shockers as they build a sturdy
cone of five, or perhaps six, bundles of wheat, skillfully placed so as to
resist summer rains. Listen to the
meadowlarks or the mourning doves.
Can you see, smell,
hear, imagine any of these happenings other than in the farmlands where SPACE
is not just a commodity, but sheer gift, a luxury, a place to revel in, a space
to roam in, where, like the proverbial buffalo, deer and antelope, one can
almost taste peace ... or as Emily Dickinson would have it, a place where one
could create a poem if there were only one clover and reverie ?
Are you enamored of
space and trees, as well as I? I hope
so.
Renee Domeier, OSB
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