Life in the Country

After spending most of my life as a "city kid," it was with great pleasure and anticipation that our family moved to a farm in the southern Appalachians of Tennessee. We had dreamed about country life, prayed about it, worked for it, pictured it, and finally it became a reality. There is much to tell of how this all came about, and I am preparing a book that describes this very exciting time of our lives - how it began, how we found the farm, moving and adjusting to farm life, and more. I am often asked about how I like life in the country. Here are just a few of my observations, along with some scenes from our farm.

What have I observed out here in the middle of nowhere?

The beauty of the trees in all of the seasons...
The wobbling path that the moon takes on its journey
     across the sky through the changing seasons...
The echoing laughter of the kids as they set out on a hike to some new place of adventure,
     knowing how quickly their laughter will fade as they grow up and start on their own adventures...
The wonder of the first time that I spotted a golden eagle, and later, a real cuckoo bird...
Waiting and praying and cheering for rain, and appreciating the changing weather so much...
Watching the sense of wonder and awe as the children discover things like crawdads and
     lightning bugs and shooting stars and seeing zillions of stars in the night sky...
Discovering God's creation in all of its glory, in snowflakes and bubbling creeks,
     in blowing leaves and breath-taking sunsets, in baby ducks and new fawns on spindly legs...
And finally beginning to understand what it means to be still and know that He is God...."

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." John Muir

"Two roads diverged in a woods, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
Robert Frost

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside...
amidst the simple beauty of nature." Anne Frank, diarist

"We must get beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness
and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey."
John Hope Franklin

Out here on the mountain, the loudest noise you hear is the wind when it roars through the treetops just before a storm, and you can sense the presence of God’s power. On summer nights, the bright stars in God’s heavens are so numerous that you can’t easily find the constellations. Watching a spider make a perfectly symmetrical web over a splashing waterfall, you can see God’s sense of orderliness. Walking up on a new fawn in the meadow, too young to know fear, you can feel God’s smile as life begins anew. His fingerprints are so easy to see here – no special technology required.

We thought we had been through so much that a move to the country would ease the pain. We were right and wrong – the pain was eased, but it was God doing the easing as He revealed Himself in the countryside and across the heavens.

He makes all things new – and we thank Him eternally.

Need the perfect gift?

Here on the Bennett tree farm, we grow a variety of beautiful trees that are shipped all over the country as wedding gifts, memorial trees, new baby gifts, housewarming gifts, and much more. Click on the link below and visit our online tree farm:

ShelteringTrees.com