Indiana Autumn, Mary Rymer [best management books of all time .TXT] 📗

Indiana Thanksgiving

Across the spread of heartland country I watch clouds stretch and grow. They pull like cotton strips thinning against light blue, like wisps of dry smoke shimmering and fading over flat, scraped corn fields. Long stretches of wire run along the farm’s fenced edge, hanging discordantly and casually between plots. Upon them crouch hawks that lord over the open land. Their bodies remain poised as their heads turn, their eyes are sharp and alert. They make no noise, but I know they can move swiftly when they are ready.

There is a wind pushing down upon the farm, unbroken by landscape that rolls little if at all. Cold rides its tail and sweeps the way clear for winter. Soon the sky will be a milky grey, and tractors will lie still and cold in large barns that hunker down against the golden brown fields. A few sparse trees scatter about the open ground.

There is a quiet this week, before the first real cold night comes, when the last red and gold leaves still cling to tree branches, swinging helplessly before they drop. Autumn is over and the cusp of seasonal change is upon the land. We pull out our mittens and coats, and collect wood. Soon we will find time and quiet to think and to dream in the long nights. Crowded around the fire, we will remember when we worked late into the evening for harvest. We treasure the work and the blessings it has brought, and now we treasure the peace and calm of winter that is upon us. We give thanks and pray for another year gone, another to come.

Publication Date: 10-26-2010

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