Sunday, August 28, 2011

countryside

It is only in the country that we can get to know a person or a book.  ~Cyril Connolly

i grew up on a farm.

or rather, i can't remember any part of my childhood life outside of my parents' countryside home.

i grew up in silence. in serenity. with nature. with animals.

surrounded by nothing but beauty, no matter the season. 

no traffic sounds or honking horns.open fields and white fences. slopping hills and soft green grass.

little kittycat mews and snuffling equine neighs. metal grate fences and gravel-dirt paths. the mooing of cows and the echoing cry of a faraway night train.
barefoot in the backyard
daisies in my hair

i always thought i was a city girl. my teenage self envied the town life that my friends told me about, being surrounded by friends and walking to get ice cream or see a movie. 

i hated the country. i wanted a city lifestyle. and when i grew up and said i do, town life became my life. barely a ten minute drive from my childhood home, but oh, so very different.

no more cows or corn fields. now i have traffic under my window, and streetlights on every corner. 

but i know better now.

now i look for occasions to take my husband

also a country boy

and go back home.

to spend hours under my favourite old maple tree in the backyard, curled up with a book and one of my feline companions. 

apple cider and a knitted blanket around a smokey-warm fire in the charcoal pit with my family. 

with autumn coming close, i anticipate those upcoming golden-toned afternoons more than anything else. 

and then comes silver-sprinkled winters that conjure ideas of candy canes and steamy mochas by the fireplace. but that's another post for a later day. 

i may live in town now, perhaps even with the rest of my life. and i love my cozy apartment, and my town-life with my husband...please don't mistake me for even a moment. 

but the country holds my heart. 

8 comments:

  1. Your country life sounds like it was so wonderful ~ "little kittycat mews and snuffling equine neighs... and the echoing cry of a faraway night train." Where I live we can sometimes here the train on cool nights. It's such a nice sound. Lovely post, dear :) I can't wait for autumn.

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  2. yay for country life. :) something magical about it, isn't there? thanks to moving out, i now live in the city. not really a huge fan of it, but i'll adjust. haha. the country is so cozy. it feels so safe. i think part of the reason i love it is because of the lack of noise. i love quiet outdoors. so peaceful. i feel you. my heart is in the country too.

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  3. Awwww...I used to be like that too. Always wanting the city, but I've kind of got to see what its like to live in the city and now I don't take the beautiful country side I live in for granted. I love it!

    Lovely post!:)

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  4. Loved the opening quote. Makes me all the more thankful that I am in the country!

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  5. hours under the old maple tree...
    hot apple cider....
    oh, how lovely. :)
    i can feel autumn coming in its beauty as i read this:)

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  6. I love thinking back to when I was a teenager (Honestly, I still kinda am, but I know now how silly everything I used to do back then was) and realizing how much I differ now compared to back then. When I was younger, I hated my parents with a passion. I could not be more happy with them now, and I know how blessed I am because of them. I grew up in a city, but we've always had a ranch and whenever I would go out there I would just lie there and stare up into the skies and take in the stars. I read so much when I manage to get out there.

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  7. Ahh, I'm a country girl at heart too. I love the convenience of the city now, but I would love to retire back in Alabama one day. I want my kids to run around barefoot and unsupervised like I did.

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  8. Ohh, gosh, this just made my heart soar.

    “apple cider and a knitted blanket around a smokey-warm fire in the charcoal pit with my family.
    with autumn coming close, i anticipate those upcoming golden-toned afternoons more than anything else.”

    I’ve never been blessed enough to live in the country, but I take every. single. opportunity I get to go there. you made my heart come alive with this post and brought me a little bit closer to home. :)

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I look at you and see all the ways a soul can bruise, and I wish I could sink my hands into your flesh and light lanterns along your spine so you know there's nothing but light when I see you. :: Shinji Moon