Getting Off the Interstate

By Donna Poole

We punch the address into Waze and choose the fastest route, because that’s how life is for all of us. We have too many places to go and too little time to finish what needs to be done. So we take the interstate, the four-lane highway, or at least the best available two-lane. And if a detour sends us down a gravel road, or we find ourselves trapped behind an Amish buggy, we fume, sigh, and sputter. How are we going to finish that to-do list now?

Do you ever get tired of the interstate? When I was a little girl Mom used to sometimes beg Dad to take us for a ride. We’d all pile into the station wagon and drive slowly down country roads looking for wildflowers. I miss those days. Even though we’ve lived on a gravel road in the country for forty-five years, life is too often a hectic whirlwind for us. I love long walks down these country roads, but we don’t meander often anymore.

I’m tired of the interstate. If you are too, join me here when you get a minute. We’ll walk together down gravel roads in all of life’s seasons. We’ll listen for the first frog to sing a welcome song to spring and look for the first red-winged blackbird sitting on a tall, dead weed. We’ll watch for the winter wheat to green, a sight so bright it will hurt our eyes. Together we’ll enjoy the scent of the first cutting of hay, and watch crops and gardens ripen in the mellow summer. We won’t regret the coming of autumn but instead dance with the rhythm of the falling leaves and pray that our later years will be as lovely. When snow comes we’ll walk together just long enough to hear it crunch under our feet and then retire to a warm fireplace with coffee, tea, or cocoa and talk about what it all means.

I hope you’ll meet me here often at “Back Road Ramblings,” and we’ll walk each other Home.