Reflections

I've been reading this book that my mom sent called, "Dakota: A Spiritual Journey", and I'm actually enjoying it. I think part of my problem with not adjusting to this place is my lack of ability to get out of the city (alone!). Yes, I have a car, but in the last four years I have been bond to my job, kids, and house (for the most part). My break-aways have been when I have made the journey west to visit home. On occassion I have been to Cross ranch (alone x1), or down to the river, but it has all been on a limited time frame and I have had a purpose: run.

The other day when I went with Mark and the kids to Lake Nelson I really sensed something different. I sensed a stirring in my spirit, and it seemed that the call of the birds was the voice of that peace. I long to visit the place again, alone, and listen. Listen to the quiet, look at the stretch of grass that grows into the horizion, watch the birds as they play their mating games, and watch the sky.

You have never seen a storm until you have seen it appear on the horizion and than watch the sky change as it moves over you. The thunder and lightening humbles you, but stirs a wild passion in you too. It mixes fear, awe, and excitement. I love the storms here.

The smell of the countryside as the wind carries the scent of the grasslands is amazing too. But, after a storm when everything comes to you fresh from the burst of rain is almost indescribable. If they made the scent into a candle (and it actually smelled like it) it would be a best seller.

Back home, I was granted many opprotunities to be alone and experience something with the land. I think that is why I am spiritually connected to my home. I feel a deep and satisfying peace when I am there; and a sense of re-birth. But, I believe that those feelings can be created here as well; I just need time and opprotunity to experience them.

Mountains, the coast, and rivers with waters so clear that I can see the tiniest pebble on the bottom are a part of me. I breathe new life when I sit along the shore and hear the water tumble over rocks and watch an American Dipper bird find lunch. I feel a connection to the heavens when I sit atop a mountain and gaze over the land, or hear the wind whisper through the pines. However, I can also create something here. The seeds have been planted in my love of the Dakota storms, or the wide variety of birds (this is a flight path for many migrating birds from Mexico to Canada and visa-versa) that I love to observe, or the smell of the grass that blows across my face. I just need to time and opprotunity.

I may never love the land of the Dakotas as much as I love the lands of the Pacific Northwest, but in the same light...Mark may never love the lands of the Pacific Northwest like he loves the land of the Dakotas. Where we grow up is often where we find ourselves, but we can find out many things about ourselves in other places too.