When I lived in the mountains of Sun Valley, ID, I would
often head over Galena Summit. I enjoyed lingering there at the
peak of the summit and remembering great back country ski runs or cross country
skiing adventures. It is over the summit and onto the country highway near Red
Fish Lake that I saw the beautiful herds of cows and sheep grazing the plains. Moooove
over, people.
After reflecting upon the care-free life of a cow when I was
24 years old I decided that if I were an animal, I would want to be a cow.
Even
then, I often regretted being so caught up in my schedule, plans, expectations,
and lists.
Those commitments beckon me to drive, shop, rush-rush-rush, and engage the world around me. It appears that life would be so awesome just grazing all
day. Bring it on.
The simple contentment of being a cow was enticing at 24. Later at 35, when I lived out I the country, in a small
community, our family drove to the larger town once or twice a day. We would
pass horses, a Silo, a tottering half fallen barn, black and white milking
cows, a classic red barn, a Swedish looking white barn, a poplar tree
plantation, and would cross the bridges over rising and falling rivers.
On the
way there we passed what we considered our own herd of cows. Like little pets we had names for some of them: Blacky, Grey Smoke, Oreo, Daisy, Browny, and the
bull with the horns whose name was….Horny. Seriously.
Sometimes the cows disappeared and we
as parents would try to soften the blow of cows going to “another pasture.” I
lived it up with 5 years of daily seeing the cows as our little family drove
by.
Our family has since moooved away from the cows to the big
Mooooovin City. I remembered my friends the cows not long ago. I was knee deep in
water at the lake in a black and white swimsuit. My five year old came running
up to me and yelled loud enough for everyone to hear, “Mom, you look like a cow!”
We laughed really hard knowing what it really means to
look like a cow in a swimsuit!
Now, I smile when I see that swimsuit. I remember that in
it, I look like a cow – maybe I will bury that one at the bottom of the
swimsuit drawer! But, I still wonder about the simplicity of being a cow. I long
for a place of stillness and predictability just as I did at age 24. Maybe this
means that I am not all that different now than I was at 24.
I long to mooooove toward the
simple life in many ways.
(Silence.)
It is very true that the green pasture and the quiet waters restore my soul.
(Silence.)
It is very true that the green pasture and the quiet waters restore my soul.
