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This morning, I awoke in a familiar, sunlit room with grandparents below baking biscuits. An infamous “hey” yelled up the stairs signaled that breakfast was ready, and I came down rubbing sleep from my eyes to stare at a world gently laid with a layer of snow-like frost. Everything was sparkling in the morning sun, especially Grandpa’s eyes as he flirted with Grandma.
And this is what I miss the most when I am away, these two elders of the family, born in the country and Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, the country’s where they’ll die. These two who fell in love so many years ago, committed to each other and brought seven baby girls in the world. Now their family is spread out over the globe and I’ve lost track of the number, yet still these two flirt over the breakfast table with a “Are you looking for trouble?” and a “Well if so, I don’t have to look very far.”
These days here are spent in October bliss – picking pears and walnuts, canning the last produce and getting the garden ready for winter. Mornings snappy and frosty, afternoons warm and sun-filled, evenings full of the scent of burning leaves. I think this is my favorite time of year in Missouri.
We crowded thirty-five people in the house and around the table on Grandma’s birthday, which was the day I arrived. That wasn’t even half of the crew, but regular life interferes (and seeing how some of us are continents away), and I don’t think we would have had room for everyone should they have come. Thirty-five was stretching the seams, though it didn’t nearly bottom out the crockpot of pulled pork and the pans of dinner rolls. If there’s one thing we know how to do, it’s lots of food and lots of loud.
There’s something so calming about being here on the farm, even in all the busyness of the days. No internet, no cell reception, no connection with the outside world – these things can be annoying. Yet our days are full with tasks and talking, sharing memories and stocking the freezer. Somehow in the midst of all of this, I relax, burdens rolling off my mind and my world falling back into normalcy.