---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <curtisdeltablues@...> wrote :
--In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote : You bet. I rode every day. I walked and trotted and cantered along the soybean and cornfield perimeters. I rode in the blizzardy freezingness of those snowy winter days when the snowdrifts mounded up high enough that my horse had to jump through them in plunging strides just to get to the other side. I rode in a face mask, hat and with three layers of down vests and coats. I rode in the baking heat and on dirt roads that were cracked and red. I escaped to my place where no meditator ventured and it was a mere 4 miles from campus. Just Somerset and I. It was my private place. It was my way of connecting to the FF that existed before meditators flocked to such an unlikely place. It kept me grounded and I felt like I could become a bit more familiar with the farmers, what they did with/to the land and I felt privileged to have access to this. Perhaps it was what kept me from falling completely under the influence of what was going on at MIU or perhaps I was never a candidate for this anyway and that was why I sought daily refuge enduring the extreme elements of Iowa weather in summer and in winter. Remember how summer was all of a sudden there? One minute it was very cold and then you'd wake up one May morning and the birds were hysterical and the heat was mounting and the smell was of wet, rich soil. Overnight transformation - no Spring at all. I loved Iowa in all its bleakness and its strange overnight fecundity. C: Thanks Ann that made checking in totally worthwhile. Ann: "One minute it was very cold and then you'd wake up one May morning and the birds were hysterical and the heat was mounting and the smell was of wet, rich soil." C:That was one of the most beautiful lines I have read anywhere Ann.You have set a new bar here. I was gunna write about the fireflies at night merging with the stars at the horizon line, but I can't bear to see anything I would write next to your post. I hope this comment marks this out so others don't miss it. Thanks Curtis, I actually wrote this with just you in mind because, although I didn't know you during those brief years at MIU, I know you were there to experience the same winters and the same Springs so what I was attempting to capture was something you would have, chronologically, been present for as well, albeit within a different context. Writing praise from you is praise indeed so thank you. I'll try and keep the bar high (unless of course I need to come back to Earth to keep Bawee in his place).
