Loving the Land

This mornings phone call of nearly two hours put me behind schedule. I had planned on mowing before it got too hot. That didn't happen. I ended up heading outside just after 11 and mowing for an hour. It was hot. Sweat kept falling off my brow and landing on the soil. Each drop that fell made me think of those before me who had worked the land by the sweat of their brow. I was just mowing and its not particularly difficult work, but it was enough that my thoughts kept returning to the concept of loving your land. I can think of so many times that Emery comes in soaked in sweat after turning the soil for the garden. Done with a shovel, no machine, his strength, his energy and the land watered by the sweat from his brow. With each fence post hole dug, each tree planted, each seed carefully laid in the ground, there is love.
When we lived in our nice California home, it never felt like ours. The yard the size of a patio. The front of the house groomed like a pet by gardeners. Not one drop of our sweat went into that soil. The house was just a house. A place to live. No one felt attached to it.
Here in our simple little home, where children's laughter has mingled with its frame, and where memories walk the rooms freely and easily, this is the place we call home and will always be home.
Gardens full of color and beautiful scents remind us all of some time we did this or that. A seed trade is responsible for the double hollyhocks in the picture. We loved them so but also can laugh now about how Steven pulled each and ever one out of the ground. He was "weeding". We still laugh about it now but at the time the young man got quite a scolding from me.
All part of life and part of our history on this land.
It almost felt like some sort of sacred moment today as I watched drop after drop of my sweat fall like great rain drops onto this land.
In the great scheme of things I can be thankful for the long phone call, it made me go out in the heat, work in less than perfect conditions and receive a lesson that will not be lost in time. I saw just how much I love this land. Another part of a simple life that gives so much back to the heart.