South Dakota Summer~Savoring Seasons

Savoring the Seasons.

Instead of fighting or dreading or resisting.

It takes a conscience shift in the mind to do it.

This season is haying season.

Fortunately this haying season is green.

Others have been brown.

This year:  plump, lush, green windrows.

Alfalfa blooms.

Grass.

The old cliche ~ "Make hay while the sun shines."

Is in full swing here in Meade County.

An old hay cutter overlooks my favorite hayfield.

To the east of my kitchen.

My kids love to sit in the seat.

And play in the old red tool box.

The kids ride along with their dad.

In today's swather.

It's a season of hope.

Hoping for enough rain.

Enough sun.

Enough dew.

Enough time.

Hope.

For rain at the right time.

For sun at the right time.

For dew at the right time.

For enough time at the right time.

For growing.

For cutting.

For curing.

For raking.

For baling.

For stacking.

Hope for the weavels

And the grasshoppers

To not eat everything before getting to that field...or all of them.

Hope for no breakdowns.

Or few breakdowns in equipment

And in spirit.

Or that the part you need for the breakdown will be in.

Hoping that you can get fixed and back in the field.

In the right time.

Hoping that when your spirit breaks down.

You get back up and out again.

Without too much fallout.

Hope for no hail to wipe out a field or the whole place.

Hoping that a storm won't come up in the night

And blow all of the windrows

So that they they have to be pulled out of the barbed wire fence and raked back up.

Or that they didn't blow away completely.

Hope for no tornadoes.

There is beauty to savor.

Here.

On the South Dakota prairie.

Under the summer sun.

It gets to be a long season.

Long hours.

Little sleep.

Solitude.

Lots of time for thoughts.

Weariness.

Monotony.

Savoring the season is a conscious effort.

A choice.  A focus.

At times it does come effortlessly.

But often it is a method of preserving sanity.

It is haying season.

Photos and text Copyright June 2010 Jodene (Jodi) Shaw.

"...hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance."  Romans 8:24-25 NKJV

{For me, jodi, my camera is the way to savor the season and preserve my sanity.  I have said before that sometimes my best photographs come at the times that my mind is at it's worst.  But picking up the camera and going out to find some beauty, calms my mind and spirit, and brings me back to God and His creation and even moves me to worship Him and hear from Him.  I don't always see and feel day-to-day what my camera shows.  But it is the camera that is my tool that helps me intentionally find something beautiful to enjoy.  To feast my eyes upon.  And that changes my heart and mind and focus.}