Sometimes, we all need to slow down and just take in our awesome land. One of the greatest benefits of traveling the rural byways is catching glimpses of the real America – not the glitzy Hollywood stuff or political power broker shenanigans nor the babbling mouths that dominate television. This is the America I see on this fourth day of July 2009:
Red, white and blue wave from front porches, flag poles, street signs, memorial gardens . . ..
The sun brushes the landscape in hues of green and gold with clouds racing across the sky.
It’s a land of straight corn rows, fresh-scented woodlands and flower pots on porches.
Horse, stock car and RV trailers roll toward pleasure point of their pickings.
Farm signs stacked at road edge tempt taste buds: “Fresh picked sweet corn and berries.”
Children scamper and play between the house and barn, enjoying summer’s freedom.
Tractors groan, pulling racks stacked high with emerald green hay bales gathered from the fields.
Whitetail deer graze in a grassy meadow, just beneath that newly built deer stand.
Bright chrome wheels dangle and spin in the wind above a lush garden plot.
Pickups perch above a bubbling mountain stream, lured there by promise of tasty trout.
An expectant chorus of cows call out to their gate keeper for their twice-daily relief trip to the parlor.
Bold orange tiger lilies dance in the gentle breeze with delicate white wild daisies in forested shadows.
Blue Angels roar through a hard left turn at 600 miles per hour, maybe 300 feet above.
A soft voice of protest on a village sign read: “The last time man messed up this bad, He sent the flood!”
Finally, as crimson skies fade into darkness, color-crammed pyrotechnics and screaming flares proclaim our good fortune, our freedoms and God’s favor upon this land.
In our America, there’s a calmness not found among the maddening crowds, and a beauty and abundance and spirit unequalled anywhere else in this world. This is your America. Celebrate it daily!