How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways.

What I Love About the Farm:

Hanging out with Sally and Emma and Sarah.

The wide open spaces. (No neighborhood in the distance. No cell towers. No highway over the ridge. Nothing but green trees and green grass.)

These two boys developing a brand new buddy-ship.

No Internet connection. (Yes, I love this. I type these little posts at night, lying in bed, through my phone. And even that service is sketchy and unreliable. And I like how that makes me feel marvelously distant from all other realities except the one wide-open reality in which I am currently experiencing.)

The loud chaos of so many children playing at once.

And the peaceful calm as all those children devour dinner together.

The silence outside. (Well, the relative silence. When the kids are inside and you can literally hear the flapping of a bird’s wings against the air. No siren heard in the distance. No truck from the nearby road. Glorious stillness.)

The lovely companionship of all of these many small pals.

The every-year-ness of July Fourth. That feeling of being a part of something big and continuous and special.

The memories around the edge of every tree, every stroll to the pond, every decoration and tradition.

The continuing friendship of these sweet fellows.

The beauty of passing this celebration on down to each of our children.

The bitterness of time’s relentless march forward coupled with the simplicity of repeated traditions.