Farming
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moreAll is Well….
On Friday, December 22 nd, 2006Somedays it doesn’t feel like it. At all. And then I remember. I remember the first time I heard this story. Hope, our third child, was 10 days old. Christmas was 4 days away. Pig prices were at life-time, staggering lows–less than my grandfather had been paid for a pig 50 years before. Our breakeven–just to pay the bills– required $30 for each piglet so...
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moreHarvest Storm
On Monday, October 30 th, 2006I come to bring meals, to feed men. But it is the men who feed me kernels of truth… about a waiting harvest and the gnashing storm coming down. Turning the gravel corner onto the 16th line, autumn glory washes the fields. A backdrop of indigo black sky frames flaming trees, combines, and soybeans gilded in sunshine. That backdrop holds rain. Pulling i...
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moreThe Law of the Farm
On Tuesday, October 10 th, 2006“These children are the seeds my days plant, the blooms of the next generations.” ~From the archives The land never fails to speaks truth. Winter shakes off her blankets, earthy soil exposed, warm and waiting. We plow deep, working up beds. Seeds, tucked in, wait for the coming of rains, the smell of the sea. Sprouts, tender and fresh,...
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Farmer
On Tuesday, September 26 th, 2006Kneeling by the picket fence next to the front porch, their two heads press close together in the morning’s autumn gold. Pausing to watch them from the kitchen window, I know their hushed pleasure; the crack of the dry pods, the rolling of hopeful brown seeds into waiting palms, banking for next year’s colors and scents. Fists clenched tight, latent life securely held, they...
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Revisiting Soaring
On Wednesday, September 20 th, 2006(This scene has been replaying…thus, the reposting from the archives)Yesterday was a day of flight, one of those days where your spirit lifts…and then soars. Up and into the golden.Shalom and I sat by the fence line yesterday afternoon, waiting, the combines humming their harvest song in the distance. We had come to bring meals to the men in the fields…but we were the...
