To expand on my last post "It's Home," I wanted to write something about why what was written in the post would feel like home and why it would heal me.
I grew up in a small community, one a lot like Mayberry.
In "Mayberry" everyone knew who's kid you were and if they didn't know that, they probably could figure it out if you told them who your grandparents were. They knew you by your blue eyes, or blond hair. They knew what church you belonged to, if you went to Sunday school last Sunday and most "importantly" if you had been baptized in the name of Christ.
As much as my world has expanded since my up bringing, I've tried as best I can to take from it what I valued. The closeness of neighbor (even if your neighbor was a few cornfields away), the willingness to help, and the peace and beauty that nature provides are all the things that I hold very near and dear to me.
A long with all the things stated above, my family was very close knit for quite some time. My grandparents owned a farm, and had the biggest, most beautiful garden I'd ever seen. I used to brag to my friends that it was as big as a football field, I guess everything looks bigger when seen through youthful eyes. The weekends were always time to hang out with cousins, have lunch at grandma's and then go pick beans and berries and all the other wonderful things the football field garden would yield of my grandparents hard work. Some of my best memories are from grandma and grandpa's house, picking berries was just one. Our family was close, and that was the standard I was brought up by. No one was aloud to leave angry, and you don't hang up the phone without saying "I love you."
When I was a kid, my house was full of all sorts of animals. From flying squirrels to goats and eventually owning a horse, my love of animals was developed instantly and continued to evolve, of my mother's. Every single job I've ever had (less the waitress job I had for a total of 3 months, or less) revolved around animals. I started helping my mom at her grooming shop, when I turned 14, just as soon as I could be issued a workers permit. After that I worked at two different Morgan show horse / training, breeding and boarding facilities. In caring for and working with horses, I learned the basis of how to understand every other species of animal that I now work with in small animal practice.
Even though the majority of my blood family has moved away and I've had to rebuild what I have, from the ground up, the one thing I've noticed about life, particularly mine is that everything comes full circle. I've learned that having animals in my life is as essential as breathing. Having family in your life that you've hand selected, animals included, is as good as any blood family. Giving back to the people and things that have given to you, having a garden, living in nature, living sustainable, living peacefully, living fully - those are all things I've learned. Elements I've pulled from my childhood.
And that's why the farm, the land, the coffee, the dogs, the horse(s), all of the animals in need, no longer in need, the field, the whippoorwill and the fences will heal me.
Because it is all of me. It will be my foundation, MY home, and one day, I will have it.
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