Thursday, May 3, 2012

Baby Cows, Prayer & Family

I’ve been trying to narrow this post down to one thing that makes me happy about living in Atchison County this week, but a) my focus is not so…focused this week, and b) why should I have to limit myself to one thing, I ask you!?  So, in no particular order, today’s list of great things…

•    Getting to live amongst the action of springtime in a farming area.  I’m sure I romanticize farming because I’ve never been the person who has to pull a calf in brutal weather or spray fields for endless hours at a time, but I love being around it. Frisky baby cows, monster machines sharing the road on my drive to work, perfect rows of gorgeous green all around…I love it all.
 
•    National Day of Prayer.  This year I was able to participate in the service at the AC Memorial Building.  It is truly humbling to gather together for the dual purpose of acknowledging our immense blessings in this country and lifting up our nation, schools, churches, families, government and media.  It was overwhelming to consider that similar services were happening all over the country today.  At the same time, the service felt very personal and community-focused, particularly when Paul Tiemeyer shared how the power of prayer has worked in his life since he was severely burned in a combine fire last fall.  It was obvious from his story that this community and county supported him and his wife in an incredible way.  (Have I mentioned lately that this place is awesome?)
 
•    Impromptu family time.  The other day, Grammy showed up at my back door to take me to lunch.  I regularly get to go on drive-around lunches with Dad.  When I have time to kill before a meeting, I can stop by and see Mom and an endless variety of short people.  I never take these little blessings for granted.
 
•    I’m having a baby! Ok, so the significance of this isn’t wholly attributed to the fact that I live where I live, BUT let me just tell you how fantastic it is to be in a place where soooo many people are genuinely ecstatic over this news.  Fabulous Facebook feedback is overwhelming in its own right, but it’s the real life random bear hugs of joy thing that gets me: in the aisles and check-out line at Hy-Vee, at the Flower Mill, in the parking lot of Food Country, everywhere.  On the one hand, living here while trying to keep a pregnancy quiet means you have to do sneaky-feeling things like tell your Board and random community members that you have the flu 3 weeks in a row (yeah-they really bought that!).  But on the other hand, the bear hugs!  I am thankful every day to be able to live in this place that raised me while experiencing this particular wonder.
 
Enough of my rambling – tell me, fellow Atchison Countians, why are YOU happy to live here today?

~MMB

1 comment:

  1. I'm sad I don't live in AC after that blog!

    ReplyDelete