Coming Home to Clinton
Photo credit: Lori Hynnek Kids after the Clinton Day Parade- June 2009
Tonight Jens and I drove home from visiting the homeopathic doctor in Montevideo with a car full of great smelling authentic Mexican food.
It was an incredibly lush, luxurious, and verdant drive home. As I drove I could hardly keep my eyes on the road because I wanted to take in all of the beauty around me. It looked like the scene from a Grant Woods' painting of rolling green hills and white farmhouses. Cows and horses grazed in the pastures along Hwy 7. The hay is lying in windrows. It is an absolute feast of bursting life.
Since Hwy 7 is under Federal Stimulus road construction, we had to take a zig-zaggy path along gravel roads to get to Odessa Minnesota. The owner of Ellingson's Honey graciously and generously put out four hive boxes and forty frames for me to pick up on mainstreet. See--the bees have already filled up 6 large boxes and need a couple more boxes. I'm telling you - this place is just bursting out of its skin with nectar.
My heart just swells with love for this place--the big sky, the open savanna, the tree lined Minnesota River Valley, the farms, pelicans, ducks, hawks, yellow headed blackbirds, the people. On the road between Clinton and the farm I met one car and one teenage boy jogging--they both waved. That is a 100% greeting rate.
Coming Home to Clinton was the name of our town's 125th Anniversary celebration last summer. I couldn't explain why I had a catch in my throat, my eyes filled with tear for much of that weekend. Same thing happened just two weeks ago for Clinton Days. I wasn't Coming Home to Clinton- I wasn't born or raised here like all the other exiles who filled the closed off mainstreet for three days of fun, baseball, and friendship. But I realized, some months later, that Coming Home to Clinton meant finding a home, a place I intend to stay as long as I'm permitted in this life.
I wonder if I could have been this happy anywhere? We looked at farms throughout Minnesota, places like Vera and a place near Cloquet. I wonder if my heart would have felt the same anywhere. But I'm not anywhere--I'm in Big Stone County. A lovely place to live, build a life, be in a community, and to just take in all the beauty that surrounds us-- if one is fortunate enough to have learned to be mindful.
Comments
Yes, the glorious GREEN of the farm lands and rolling hills, the rivers and ponds, the prarie lands, the wild flowers and all sorts of wild life!.... the awarenss and appreciation of this gift passed on by our ancestors. I am so happy for you and the family. And it brings dears to my eyes just thinking of the graditude and awesome feelings all of you have for the treasure of rural living!
And add to this your appreciation for the gracious awareness of this precious gift from a loving 'Creator God!' Blessings to all of you, Bev
Posted by: Aunt Bev | June 18, 2009 12:00 PM
I believe home is where you make it, and you made yourself a LOVELY home there in big stone county. It really is a beautiful
Posted by: kathy springer | June 21, 2009 7:03 PM
You would enjoy life anywhere sis! i just wish we could see each other more. We have more fun now, since we don't fight anymore (or as much). looking forward to seeing you and jens on the hottest day of the year. Oh, and its pretty at my house!
Posted by: Kelley | June 22, 2009 8:24 PM
What a wonderful description of the area out there! I drove on Hwy 7 last week and it was incredibly beautiful. You have such a gift with words. Thanks for the strawberry info. I hope to come out there late this week and pick some. I don't know if there'll be time to stop by and see you on that trip, but I would like to see your 5 acre garden sometime. I'll give you a call.
Diane
Posted by: Diane Clounch | June 22, 2009 9:01 PM
Fun to see new pics of the kids, boy are they growing, kind of like the weeds on the farm. Haven't made it to Fargo because Chad is home every other weekend but will sometime this summer.
Posted by: becky zimmerman | June 23, 2009 10:44 PM
Just wanted to say hello again. I continue to enjoy reading your blog from time to time. This post struck a chord - as I am coming to feel the same way about my adopted home and am working hard to be more mindful.
We just returned from a 2 week road trip to visit friends in Montana. I continue to be enamored with mountains and forests and find comfort here in the Pacific Northwest.
One of the best things for me about your blog is it keeps me in touch with the prairie lands - the center - both literally and figuratively - of our Turtle Island.
Thanks.
Joe
Posted by: joe pullara | June 24, 2009 11:06 AM
Out here in Yolo County it is all rice emerging like some green felt on an agricultural pool table, great forests of fruit trees laden with ripening cherries, apricots, and peaches, vast fields of canning tomatoes, and gardens of sunflowers and canola. But our town, while charming in its own way, is not so lovable as you find Clinton, so that when my eyes tear, it is usually a result of bad air quality. It's great you are finding such a welcome out there o the prairie.
Posted by: Dan Ray | June 24, 2009 3:20 PM