Encircled though I am by mountains and city, I can feel the quiet pulse of the prairies today. I can almost hear the wind whistling through last year's corn stalks standing in the field, half-covered by snow. I sense the winter wheat lying close to the ground, patiently, patiently awaiting the spring thaw. And I, too, await a day when I will shed the coldness of this world, this body, this heart so prone to wandering.
Maybe it's because I've been re-reading the classic Giants In the Earth, a story of Norwegian pioneers in Dakota Territory. The land in Rølvaag's novel is vast, stark, and richly fertile, and it leaves no one unchanged who seeks to survive it, much less tame it.
After 130 years, the land had been survived and peopled and maybe even slightly tamed, but it still inspired awe for Rich Mullins, who wrote a song to the Keeper of the Plains.
And so, in belated celebration of Kansas Day (I spent the majority of yesterday sick in bed, alas); and because there are some days when I just miss the prairies, and even more days when I long to be "shaken free of this old world"; and also because this is a beautifully poignant song and a good cover that begs to be shared...
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