Days Gone Bye
I can’t help but feel like our generation, or maybe it’s just the unique set of friends I have, has relearned to appreciate the things in life that have been long forgotten. Dinners over home cooked veggies and slow evenings on the porch. A good smoke elevating into the night air and good friends enriching your life. The feeling of residue on your fingers after picking a field full of fresh greens. The sweat on your brow after tending to the fruit of your labor.
Life on the farm.
For those of us in the South it’s a thing of the past. Distant memories that only our Grandparents and Great-Grandparents can enlighten us to. A life of the past.
Southern or not I can’t imagine a person on this earth that wouldn’t enjoy the feeling of the cool night air on their skin with a glass of wine in their hand and the smell of green grass in their nostrils. There is something to be said for living in the South. I never thought I would be the one to advocate that life. If you had asked me years ago, I would have sworn I would have married a guy from the North and escaped this life of humid summers and mosquitoes.
It’s funny where life leads you.
These days I couldn’t be happier to boast the incredible experiences that life in the South has blessed me with. The rich past I’ve grown from or the future I hope to have. It’s truly unique and something I thoroughly realize so many would be so happy to have enjoyed.
My Granny cooked Sunday dinners that my entire family enjoyed…every Sunday. My family ate dinner at the dinner table…every night. I’ve felt the grass between my toes as I ran through the yard and I recognize the smell of a bonfire of harvested wood. Mosquitoes have plagued our picnics and flies will forever remain a nemesis of my Grandmother.
That really doesn’t explain the extent of living below the Mason Dixon Line. I’m not sure that I could really capture it in a blog post. It’s more a feeling than a description, and something that these days I wear proudly as a symbol of my heritage.
Of course it’s a pride thing, as it has been with our ancestors, but I’m proud to hold the rich heritage of a Southerner under my belt. Conversely I’m also proud to have grown into a sophisticated person that has had worldly experiences to open my mind to the reality of our world today. The marriage of the two is what helps me to appreciate either perspective. To me my heritage is something that is irreplaceable in this day and age and I couldn’t be happier to have been blessed with it. I’m sure we can all appreciate the upbringing and cultural experiences that have molded us into the wonderful people we are today. Sometimes it’s fun to take a moment, or rather find yourself in a moment that shines a light on just how beautiful it really is.
