Living by the rhythm of the Earth

I lived a long time in South Carolina and Florida, places where the seasons kind of run into one another and you can lose track of time pretty quickly.

Here in Kansas, you have to live by the rhythm of the Earth on her time and in her season.

To the left is the same hill back in the winter and then earlier this week. The landscape looks so different here in the winter versus the summer, and even the fall versus the spring.

The plants look different. In the winter they are flat-out brown and dead looking. In the summer, they are a deep, deep green and they tower over us.

The light slants in a different way. The color of the sky changes. And what we do changes. Right now we ride bikes almost every day. In the winter, we sled and make snowmen and eat snow cream. In the spring we plant our garden. In the fall, we get ready for winter and harvest veggies, apples and mulberries.

Brady told me the other day, "In the summer, Jase mows all the time. And then in the fall, he's always raking leaves. And in the winter, he shovels!" Even at 7 he is very aware of how the seasons affect how we live day to day. 

In the winter we can walk anywhere we want without fear of snakes, ticks, mosquitoes and poison ivy. But today, a quick foray out to the north pond sent us scurrying up the hill just ahead of a swarm of West-Nile-Carrying Mosquitoes! Boy were they loud and persistent. And poison ivy seems to be lurking around every corner.

But in the summer we can watch our garden grow and go to the pool day after day to beat the heat. And we spend very few seconds considering what to wear outside, which can be a production in the cold season.

When it's dry, our garden suffers and our ponds die. When nature is plentiful with her rain, we are fruitful and can catch fish.

I really love living this way, so connected with the seasons, the ups and the downs. It makes me feel alive and in tune with the cycles, rhythms, ebbs and flows of nature. I think it's how we were meant to live.