Tuesday, August 01, 2006

rewards

click on photo for larger-than-life detail

I find lately that when I make a decision to do something thoughtfully, deliberately, and simply, I am rewarded in unexpected and wonderful ways.

Yesterday it was a walk at lunch time. It was 95 degrees outside, with high humidity, and I could have easily decided to stay indoors in the air conditioning, or hopped in my car to drive to the store to get something to drink. (I am usually more prepared than I was yesterday, bringing drinks and lunch from home.) But I thought a little exercise and fresh air, no matter how hot, would be good for my sluggish, unmotivated state of mind and body.

Stepping out felt like plunging into a hot tub. I walked slowly, stretching muscles and joints stiff from sitting too long. I would not have wanted to go anywhere further than the three blocks to the store where I purchased an iced tea and a diet soda. I drank the iced tea on the walk back, its unsweetened slightly bitter coolness refreshing. A couple of older women in a black Cadillac stopped and asked me directions to a popular restaurant out by the freeway. How odd, I thought, usually out-of-towners come via the freeway and think the restaurant is the town.

I walked on with my eyes scanning the ground ahead of me, a habit I picked up as a child when I would walk gravel roads looking for agates or other interesting stones. Recent rains had washed the layer of dust from stones in the new gravel that was recently spread on the parking lot at work. A reddish stone caught my eye, but I did not stop at first. I walked a few steps, then decided to back up and take a look. There at my feet, half buried in the gravel, was a finely red and white banded Lake Superior agate, one of the nicer ones I've found. A reward for the simple act of walking, the deliberate choice to walk, and the thoughtful state I find myself slipping into when I walk.

The life we are gradually building for ourselves on the land is starting to reveal its rewards. It is often easy to slip into the mindset that things are not happening here as quickly as we would like, and we should pursue higher-paying opportunities elsewhere temporarily to save up enough to return and pick up where we left off. We have come dangerously close to actually doing so in the past, but we were fooling ourselves. We could have never come back. So we have persevered, learned patience, grown roots, made friends. The rewards are many, large and small, seen and unseen.

Update: Camera back up and running, the photo now shows a few of the agates I have been personally rewarded with, including the one from this post, lower right.

14 comments:

Sue said...

Gorgeous agate! How exciting to find something like that just lying in the road...

R.Powers said...

Wonderful.
Even from our distant vantage point, we SandCreek readers can see your plan coming together and the progress you've made.
You can't put a monetary value on pond swims, peanut rides, and creating something wonderful together.
Well done.

Anonymous said...

What a great find! I love stones in all forms, and have them everywhere. Now, I am going to look up red agates.

Anonymous said...

Well, I can't say for certain, but I'd guess that the unsweetened iced tea you were drinking had heightened your senses and made you more alert than normally. Thus you spotted the agate (!) on the ground.

Deb said...

Sue, Sandy, and Pablo- In my area, agates like these are more common than perhaps anywhere else. They were formed in volcanic rocks in formations around Lake Superior but carried south by glacial activity. Gravel pits are an unending source of these treasures, so gravel roads...well, you get the picture.

FC- I think you totally understand what I was getting at here.

e4 said...

Too often I forget to just be aware of the details. I'm so focused on getting somewhere or doing something that I don't see the beautiful and the interesting right in front of my face. Walks outside are a good way to force the issue a bit, since they occur at a much more leisurely pace. Especially when it's hot!

Great post...

Jim said...

Great post Deb, and a beautiful agate too...

Madcap said...

Are you serious? You actually get rocks like that occurring naturally in your area?

Madam, you have flabbered my gaster.

Deb said...

Thanks, e4 and Jim!

madcap- "flabbered my gaster"! There's a line to remember!

It's the official state gemstone of Minnesota, and I am fortunate to live right smack dab in the hotbed of agate pickin' country. Yes, those lines are exquisite, aren't they?

Anonymous said...

I love the new photo. I'd love to find a few beauties like that around my woods. Wow! (Of course, I do have those round rocks. They're kinda nice.)

R.Powers said...

Agates and Lake Superior make me think of Sterling North and Rascal.

Deb said...

pablo- I don't remember any nice stones from my brief stay in Missouri. I guess these beauties were in my blood.

FC- thank goodness for Wikipedia. Slightly, oh-so-slightly, before my time.

R.Powers said...

Read it to your children!!!

Hexdek16 said...

"I find lately that when I make a decision to do something thoughtfully, deliberately, and simply, I am rewarded in unexpected and wonderful ways."

How so very true!

Regards.