I live in paradise. My house is on the edge of the country. There is a farm a quarter of a mile away. 
Within a mile a family has chickens, goats, and horses. I love seeing the baby goats when they are so tiny.
The view from my large living room window is another portal into paradise. I watch a steady stream of birds come into my view. Birds I have never seen anywhere appear at my feeders like the magnificent red bellied woodpecker. About once a year I see the exotic fifteen-inch red crested piliated woodpecker although it is far more likely I hear its wild cackle first.
We even had a brush or two from the local black bear who now stays away. Our four dogs who now are enclosed by a large wooden picket fence now frighten him away.
There is so much beauty here and sometimes I do not see it. I forget I grew up in the city–a large town. I can see cottontails play outside from my kitchen window. My two friends, a couple I have know for years, are going to visit us next week from NYC. To them this is wild country.
I now have to view the land from their standpoint, change my perspective. It is too easy to become blind to your surroundings. Somehow I need to lift the veil that has grown in front of me and again see the beauty around me.
I had fallen in love with Central Pa. I knew things had changed when once I was coming back from NJ (where I had lived for the past two decades) and I thought, “I am coming home”. It is paradise here and I have to remind myself of that fact. Every time I drive up the Juanita Valley, my breath is taken away by its magnificent view of the River and its surrounding mountains. Even closer to home, when I drive into town from the back way and peer down into the Susquehanna River Valley, I can easily imagine I am viewing the fjords of Norway. The universe is in my own backyard. All I have to do is open my eyes. It’s here. I do not have to travel to Maine, Alaska or Hawaii. It is all here. Paradise.
Tags: baby goats, beauty, bird-feeders, bird-watching, birds, black bear, chickens, cottontails, country, country-life, dogs, edge of country, farm, fjords of Norway, four dogs, goats, horses, Juniata Valley, mountain, NJ, NYC, PA, paradise, pets, piliated woodpecker, red bellied woodpecker, river, see the beauty around me, Susquehanna River, universe in my own backyard, valley, woodpecker
Posted in animals, beauty, God, knowledge&learning, life, local, seasons, time, wisdom |
