Last night as the day was winding down, I finished a couple of chores and headed for the back porch to watch the mare ponies and their foals in the pasture.
Sipping a fresh iced tea, I was sidetracked by some weeds that needed pulling. Mind wandering, I then watered a perennial garden I put in earlier this year.
The filly pony came to check my work. Shadow is the name we settled on for this dark pony, and the name fits her well. She is like a puppy, following one of us closely if given the chance, nudging an arm to remind us she likes head scratches.
The pony pasture is west of our house, and beyond it is a wide-open horizon. Too many times, we are too busy with the mundane jobs of living on a farm to take time to enjoy the gifts a country setting provides.
Last night, I took that time. The western sky was blazing with beauty, a divine mix of orange and pink and dusty blue swirls of clouds unlike any I could create on paper, even if suddenly granted artistic talent.
I watched the ponies grazing under that amazing sky and thought back on all that this farm has given us. We moved here when our son and daughter were in high school; they both now have children starting their own walk in the same school district.
We have watched sheep dot our pastures, birthing lambs that we enjoyed raising in our barn. It was exciting to see some of those lambs shown with great reward at area and state fairs. There have been cattle, goats and horses in our pastures and our barn.
We enjoy raising puppies once in a while, too, if families we’ve come to know through our three decades of developing a line of West Highland White Terriers ask and are willing to wait.
Our grandchildren are currently enamored by colorful, playful kittens that came our way a few months back.
While the world searches for fulfillment in various, sometimes costly and enormous ways, true joy and peace and tranquility is ultimately found in quiet gifts that sometimes fall right into our unsuspecting laps.
Standing under that magical sunset on a quiet summer evening reminded me, once again, just how lucky we are to live here.
