See With Your Heart

The quiet hum of a day winding down echoes around this place.

I slam the bunkhouse door shut behind me and step out with a bounce in my step. Normally a day in town leaves me feeling drained, but today I instantly felt better as soon as we pulled into the yard…might have had something to do with the fact that I survived another driving episode with my sister though.

There’s a breeze blowing as I pick up my rope and head for the roping dummy, making that comforting “sighing” sound that trees make.

I’ve been practicing for a while, when I reposition my wooden sawhorse.
 I look up and out.

Across the road and in the south pasture there’s a pig slowly threading its way through the long grass. It stops occasionally and roots at something in the dirt, slowly making its way towards a group of turkeys that are headed down from the trees on the hill.

I leave the dummy and lean on the fence, watching. Across the valley over the neighbor’s barn the first range of mountaintops are in shadow and the higher peaks kissing the sky are tinged pink. It’s beautiful. I am absolutely blessed beyond words to get to live where I do.

When I start towards the barn to go feed the horses with Adrian, the owl my mums has christened “Barney the Barn Owl” silently soars out and into the safety of the lower barn. His whiteness stands out in stark relief against the quickly darkening sky and I’m glad I’m not a mouse hiding amongst the star thistles.

Have you ever driven with someone from town and noticed how they only stare straight ahead? They can only “see” with their eyes, and that sight is regulated to what is directly in front of them. I’ve sat with friends who never saw the little band of deer grazing by the freeway, the big hawk soaring along side us with a snake dangling from its talon’s or the coyote darting into the brush away from the sound of our truck.

Look around you and really SEE things. Notice the little details of our world and realize that we are blessed to live in this world. God didn’t have to give us the animals or country He did which colors our world, but I’m sure glad He did.

Aren’t you?

xo xo Liz