The opportunity to drive across the plains is a treat. It may sound strange, but getting on the highway an experiencing the vast open field and sky of our heartland helps bring clarity to mind and heart. Something about the high speed is a part of that, too. Out of the city and on clear open road brings a tremendous sense of freedom. Whew! It’s as though the sweep of the land clears my soul.
Each of us has a landscape to our soul. I think it is more than one, and the prairie is one of mine. What’s one of yours? When we can go to these places, allow ourselves to connect once again to the unique beauty terrain, our soul is renewed, refreshed and reflected back to us.
Paradoxically, the traveling fast this way has me slow down. On the way home from my holiday visit with friends in Iowa City, I let myself pull over and enjoy the countryside a little closer up. The beauty, stillness and vivid life even in a small patch of roadside prairie does my heart good. Where in nature does your heart good?
