My deepest connection with place is due to family and friends, but that connection is amplified by my connection with my surroundings.  Gardening, raising cattle, chickens, milking a cow, and learning how to make products from the land have all given me this deep connection.  It is my refuge from this crazy world.  My hopes are that the rural feel won’t change, but a new subdivision and Walmart Neighborhood Market is going in around the corner.  Corporate America is encroaching. 

I am emotionally attached to my home.  Not only has it been my own refuge, but it has been a refuge to displaced people along the way as our family welcomed them in.  It has been a place of protection during this Great Recession as well.  Worth protection and care itself.

We are thoughtful caretakers of our place.  It is a rare gem just outside the city limits.  Set apart from the sterile environment of suburbia.  It is earthy and alive.  It fills my soul with gratitude.  My world can be crumbling around me, but this is the place that God has given me for repose.