The apartment in Lawrence is 1/2 mile south of the Kansas Turnpike (I-70). When you cross over to the north side, you are in the country. I took a four mile walk there today. The sky was cloudy and the temperature was in the mid-fifties.
My eyes literally drank in the wonders of the pastoral scene: mown fields, pastures with grazing black angus cattle, maples, oaks, and other hardwoods sporting their new autumn foliage, a scissortail flycatcher, a flock of starlings, small raptors circling overhead, a tiny field mouse, two large hawks sitting on limbs contemplating the fresh catch of the day (which could be the little field mouse if he's not careful), Dunkard farmers and their families, silos, barns full of hay, farm houses, and ponds with gentle ripples on them.
It was a feast for the eyes and a massage for the soul. To think that I am privileged to share the creation with all of them is humbling. Thanks be to God.
