Falling Star

One joy of living on the prairie is space. As much as I enjoy trees, mountains, oceans and lakes, my heart always settles when I am back on a grass studded landscape and my eyes can relax into a sea of subtlety. It is a place where shades of green, brown and gold are punctuated by a wildflower or two. It is a place that can be much maligned or valiantly revered. It is a place that sets forth no pretense of being flashy or instantly gratifying. Its harshness rasps off the unsubstantial and its gentleness nurtures the delicate. It is, most assuredly, not a terrain for the faint of heart.

Finding treasures on the plains is about contrast. Scanning a calm night sky can result in a gasp inducing falling star. Tromping through knee-high vegetation can stir up a circus of jumping grasshoppers. Listening to silence is quickly accompanied by a meadowlark's lilting ditty. Abandoned country roads are traversed by pickup trucks bobbing along with a determined purposefulness.

Perhaps one lesson of the prairie is learning to appreciate the mundane. Despite a steady stream of Facebook posts and Twitter feeds to the contrary, I suspect many of us live relatively flatline lives. We do laundry, dust furniture, go to work, sit in the dentist's chair, watch television, unload the dishwasher, mop up spills and make soup. Our eyes scan another ordinary day with a sigh. We wonder if a life of duty will make us dull. We long for a falling star.

It is time to embrace our inner prairie. Do not be afraid to rejoice in the balm of the ordinary. Celebrate duty as an opportunity to serve and obey. Smile when a bird sings. Fling open the curtains to peek at what will paint the sky today. Send a real birthday card and sign it in cursive. Drink two cups of coffee in a row. Skip a week of dusting, or two, or three. Eat cheese curls in the car. Play the piano. Sew on a button. Water a plant. Read casserole recipes. Buy a new broom. Pray.

Give the prairie a chance to send down deep roots and do what needs to be done. And, hey, if a falling star comes your way, stop and enjoy a moment even Pinterest cannot duplicate.