Our nearby roads are traveled by a wide variety of contraptions: horses pulling wagons or buggies, bicycles, cars and trucks, and farm equipment. After the rain, the dirt roads give evidence of this varied traffic, and I captured this image.
We live among Amish in our community, and we glean the benefits of this in many ways. It’s wonderful to live in a place where we see horses pulling buggies and wagons every day. We have learned about “horsepower” by watching them pull plows and heavy wagons through the fields.
but sheep graze separately in the nearby field.
Fresh food, in the form of free-range eggs and beef and pork is one benefit of living near Amish folk. They often sell berries in the spring, and then vegetables in summer, and later on, pies and cookies and sausage bread take center stage at the farmer’s market.
(Oh my, sausage bread! My friend, Kenosha, sells hers at the Farmer’s Market in Hillsdale, MI on Saturday mornings. I can’t even begin to describe the deliciousness!! She makes her own cheese and uses sausage from hogs she raises to create her wonderful sausage bread. There is nothing like it!)
But another benefit of living near the Amish is the calm and slower pace their lifestyle illustrates. It was the pace we all had a little over a hundred years ago, and though there is hard work, there is also rest and play and delicious dinners.
(My grandma was born in 1911, and remembered a time without cars, and without electricity. She lived long enough to watch me use a computer to make a booklet with her poems, but since she passed in 1999, she never used a cell phone. I remember my wonderful Grandma Dode very well, and she lived during that time before cars, so it can’t be very long ago.)
It is such fun to see the Amish children being pulled by a Shetland pony in a tiny wagon! Other sights include Sunday afternoon games on the lawn for the children while the adults gather in groups under the trees and visit, and later in the year we will see the children ice skating on the pond in winter! It’s like a living, breathing Currier and Ives painting.
When the power goes out during a storm, I think of my “English” friends and hope they are all right, but I never worry about my Amish friends. For them, it’s business as usual–except for the wind and rain. They can heat their houses, cook, and get water no matter what is happening with the electricity. If, God forbid, a terrible event were to occur, we would be coming to them for help.
It’s inspiring to think of the independence that can be gained if we just learn a few things. How to sew, for example. What if you could design and sew your own clothes? Spin your own yarn and crochet a hat and scarf. What about making your own soap? You could have a garden, and pick your dinner right before you eat it. Think of the benefits for your health–after all, you would know exactly what was going into your clothes, soaps and food.
Anyway, I’m inspired. And day after day, while I wait for the sun to rise in the morning, I hear the cooing of the morning doves mingled with the lowing of the cow who is waiting to be milked, and the bleating of the sheep, and above it all, high and proud, echoes the crow of the rooster. (I almost typed a “single” rooster, but I am sure he is very well-occupied with his harem, so “single” would be misleading!)
And all this is the backdrop for the main event: The rising of the sun.
So when I look down at those prints in the dirt, my first fervent wish is that the tire track will never eradicate the hoof print. But I know from experience that life will always triumph. You can flog that iron beast with abandon, but it is needy. It requires a certain kind of fuel, specific spark plugs, the right tires, a working battery and so on. Very little neglect will sideline any automobile.
(Well, not mine. I neglect it all day long, and she still runs like a top! But maybe that’s because Jim looks after me. And the boys do, too. And our wonderful friend, Eric, helped so much when she needed a new timing belt–thanks for the tools, parts, and advice! And I always drive carefully over the tracks because of my shocks, and check the oil often . . . Wow, do I enjoy my 5-speed! But sadly, I neglect her, and I digress.)
A horse is flexible. Not only can she can eat all kinds of different things if you run out of horse chow, but she can also go off road without any problem, and she can be your companion. She will respond to you, she may anticipate you, and she is smart enough to help you. A horse might fight for you, or share apples with you. For she is alive, and she has the capacity to love and be loved. She reproduces. She is gifted to us by God, and is part of the river of life. She will survive because He has mandated it.
Maybe I should be worried about the truck.
Our friend, Becca, has raised our awareness of the value of horses. She rehabilitates neglected horses and trains young people so that they know how to work with them. Hey, Becca, we’re thinking of you today!
The Fullers Four 