Growing up in a large family one has only a few choices:
Laundry, Kitchen or Garden/Yard work.
With twelve kids, the choice for me was GardenI loved to be out working in the garden or wandering around in the field behind
One can imagine that many hours were spent with tomato and potato plants
and string beans and carrots
We also had strawberry and raspberry plants from which we made a
whole lot of preserves for the family
In all those hours of digging and weeding I never had this experience
I had the experience of learning that I felt better after walking
barefoot all afternoon in the dirt
I knew sunshine was my friend, even after multiple sunburns
One day, long after those sun filled ones
long after I moved far from those fields of home
I was asked to work at a vineyard in Salem, Utah
The vineyard was near the bottom of a mountain
and had not been kept up in decades
as a small group of us began to trim the vines
a strange sensation filled every part of me
like an old friend from long ago, surprising you with a warm hug
saying, “Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!”
I stood there amongst the broken twigs and vines and weeds
~and just let this feeling embrace me~
Safety in the Fall 