What's Needed Most...

Some of us are born in the country.  We like the city well enough, may even live there, but after a bit it starts to press in upon us.

This lovely brown-eyed girl is a country girl at heart.  The apartment complex where
she lives  houses as many people as her former hometown. Not in the heart of the city  perhaps, but close enough.  Busy highways intersect the area around her neighborhood. 

She loves her job and her new home and the friends she's made over the past few months.  But this weekend she said she had to leave the city.  She was tense.  Deep down tired.  The city, she said, is too full of noise all the time.  There's always something going on and you find yourself busy busy, running about at the same intense pace.  
She said she needed something....something the city can't offer. 
She needed open spaces...fewer people...room to breathe...that special brand of quiet that only the country can offer.



 What's needed can only be found along old state highways where cars are few and the views expand before you.

Where roads are two lanes, not eight...

And the pace is slower.  Where the skies can be seen for miles.

 and the views remind you that all of life is not made up of traffic and sirens and honking horns and people jabbering away on cell phones in restaurants and malls and grocery store.


Where paved roads are not always the order of the day and the dust of a country dirt road seems cleaner breathing than citified air.
Where landmarks are part of our past and bittersweet with memory.
And home looks the same as it did the last time you were there.

Where tails wag when you arrive...


 And faces light up...
  
And the cat purrs...

And a bed is dressed with a quilt, a bit of family history meant for comfort as much as for warmth...
It's good to be home...
to wake up in the morning and listen to the sounds of bird song and turkey gobbling in the woods and watch rabbits hop across the lawn.

This is what is needed most.

9 comments:

Tracy said...

A lovely post, Terri!

Kathy in Illinois said...

I was born in 1951 and lived on a 240 acre farm all my life- except for college and 1 year teaching in Florida- until I married in 1975. My husband and I built a house on our beloved farmland that's been in our family since the mid 1800s. My daughter teaches in a large city in Colorado. She comes home and says "she wants to hear the corn grow!" You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl! Great post and so true!
God bless, Kathy in Illinois

Kathy said...

Beautiful! Love the pictures!

Hope your girl is able to find the rest and peace that she needs!

Rhonda said...

pretty pictures and pretty daughter.

And Miss Terri, you are quite the photojournalist!

I was also glad to see K wearing her seatbelt.

Anonymous said...

I moved to town almost 50 years ago when I married Gramps and I can so relate to Katie. I went to the front window of our apartment, there was a house, the side windows, the same! There was even someone upstairs! I felt so claustrophobic and couldn't wait to escape to the country. I did eventually get used to living in town and am happy to be here, but I am so thankful for the park near me, where I can pretend for a little while that I am part of the country again, even though I love the convenience of where I am and am happy with my flowers and my manageable lawn size. Once in a while though, I do wonder how my life would have been different if we had moved to that little village instead of where we live now, a town of about 30,000 people. When we have gone to visit our kids in the cities where they have lived I get such a feeling of loneliness even though I am surrounded by people. Grandma D.

Anonymous said...

My eyes welled up with tears as I read this post. Thank you for painting this picture which reached my deepest hopes longings for the future

Anonymous said...

My youngest son moved to the city and came back home after a year... couldn't handle the noise, so many people. He couldn't safely walk around town, where he would say "hi" to people and they would cross the street to avoid him. Happy to have him back home in our little town.

Lorita said...

I am with Katie! I love those same things that you pictured and wrote about. Cities are nice to have close enough to visit now and then to take advantage of the arts and culture (not to mention shopping!)but give me the peace and quiet of rural living. I may live in town but it is a small town and I have an empty lot behind me, beyond that is the high school football field/track, and then the highway on the edge of town. Almost in the country. I hope Katie is able to work things out so she can be happy and still have a good job. That isn't easy in today's world.

Lilac Dreams said...

Terri catching up on some blog and internet time, I so understand what Katie needed, I am getting my country R and R now