Blue sky stretches before my husband and me as we traverse back gravel roads northwest of Faribault Sunday afternoon.
I yearn for this escape, for this reconnection to the land, this attempt to rejuvenate my spirit.
Just being in the country calms my soul, brightens my outlook, causes me to pause and appreciate this peaceful rural landscape.
In this moment, at this time, I slip into the past, envision myself laboring in the barns we pass. Soothing thrum of the milking machine. Cocooning warmth among cows snugged in mounds of golden straw. The comfort of ‘CCO radio.
In fields, I see a much younger and skinnier version of myself plodding between rows of soybeans to yank cockleburs on a scorching summer day.
At the sight of a farmyard, I hear my buckle overshoes crunch upon hard-packed snow as I follow the path from house to barn.
Memories unleash in this landscape, in the view of farmyards anchored into hillsides within an ocean of snow-washed fields.
I am happy here. Content. At peace.
Yes, even in this winter of too much cold and too much snow, I find solace in blue skies and sunshine, barns and white-washed fields.
This story was cross posted at mnprairieroots.com.