Mom, when you were a girl...

Did you ever go to the post office and pick up baby chicks?  Did you ever have soaking wet baby chicks on your kitchen table warming up?   These questions this morning have me reflecting on how much I love it out here in the country.  I get questions like this all of the time. The thought of growing up in the "city" is foreign to them.  They can't imagine what it would be like.  It's so fun to have little country kids - running free, playing with the baby animals, gathering the eggs, milking the cows, knowing the difference between a combine and a planter, recognizing the difference between corn and beans growing out in the fields.  I don't know that I would have had the courage to pick up and dispose of chicks that didn't survive, nor would I have not even flinched when a chicken used my back to propel herself out of the chicken house while I was kneeling inside of the door in her way.  I assure them, quite honestly, that growing up in the city was not bad at all.  We could ride our bikes on SIDEWALKS, instead of gravel and grass... We could run up the street to the park to play... We had a cat... and a dog... and a yard...  Somehow they're not convinced.  And somehow, I'm pretty sure that now that I'm a country girl myself I'd have a pretty hard time moving back to the city.  The sounds are different - it's not that it's so quiet, it's just a different kind of noise - instead of traffic and airplanes and people, we hear distant freight trains... cows... chickens... frogs... coyotes...  We look out the window and see pasture and fields and animals instead of buildings and cars.  We look up at the sky at night and are amazed by God's creation.  I love going to town and seeing people we know and watching the farmers sitting around visiting while their wives shop. There is a certain wonder to the city.  The lights and buildings are beautiful and amazing in their own way.  The hustle and bustle is easy to get caught up in.  There are stores and stores and more stores and any restaurant imaginable. I'm glad there are people who enjoy living there - I used to be one of them. And I'm glad I can occasionally visit the city and enjoy the sights and sounds and busyness.  But I am so thankful to live in the country!!!