middle of nowhere

       Often I am asked, "Why do you live out in the middle of nowhere?".......far from the comforts of civilization and t.v. ................unless you pay for it.......which I don't  so I don't know all the tragic things happening, or the current trends, or who or what is the latest fashionable thing to do, to wear, or to copy.  I drop by the local library to post on my blog, and never take time to check the news or the weather.  I figure if I step outside and get wet it must be raining, my aching legs tell me 5 days ahead of a storm anyway.  Or if I smell frost in the air.......really I can....... I cover the tomatoes and turn on heat lamps and make sure the greenhouses are closed tight.   No, living out in the middle of nowhere is not an inconvenience unless you run to town 50 miles away and come home having forgotten to pick up what you went to town for in the first place........Yes I have done that more than once..........
       Years ago I discovered that if I sit down on the ground and look all around me, I cannot see any of the neighbors, they are hidden from my view by the stands of native sage brush and grasses. I am the only person in the world.........  I live in solitude, peace, and self reliance.  I farm the soil that grows my food, kings can do no more, but the best reason for living out in the middle of nowhere, second only to the kazillion stars that are overhead every night is the preclusion to their fiery, nightly show;  the sunsets that grace the sky every evening.  Sometimes I am too busy and forget to look up, there is just so much to get done before darkness sets in, but  generally I stop and breath in the beauty that surrounds me.  I watch the ending of a perfect day, the colors brilliant across the sky and then slowly fading into the muted tones of rest and rejuvenation.  The stars peaking out one by one until the sky is filled with dancing specks of light guiding my footsteps along beaten paths through the garden.  The plants close their leaves around them to keep warm through the chilly night.  The lizards that run around my feet during the day are lying quiet waiting for the sun to warm them as the morning breaks.  I hear the owls begin their nightly flight, the whoosh of wings as they hunt the creatures of the dark.  They roost in the trees above me, their hoo- hoo-- hooooo lulls me to sleep. The night hawks that hover close to the ground and the bats that find their way through the crops with their high pitched calls of direction accompany me through the gardens.

Why do I live out in the middle of nowhere?  To explain it....I can't, it is impossible to find the right words, they don't exist.   It is a feeling, a sense of total awareness, I am one with the wind, the moon, the stars, the seasons, the cycle of life and death,  I live out where I can truly believe, I can be true to myself, and..... I can watch the
                                                           sun set.........

I snapped this photo at the junction just as I was getting home from making a CSA delivery to town last Wednesday evening