Adam and Eve left their garden paradise, shoulders bent, heads down, longing to return to the land God had granted them.
The Joads packed up their last belongings and said good-bye to the useless red and gray dust of Oklahoma. Useless, but home.
Scarlet O'Hara returned to Tara when all had left her, staking her tomorrow on the place that would not forsake her.
My family has no ties to the land. As generations moved westward, then northward, each generation leaving the home of its fathers, we lost our bond to the dust under our feet.
This week I slept, my face separated from clods of hay and dust only by the thin canvas of my tent and the thinning air in my mattress. The land on which I slept has belonged to the same family for many decades. As I observed the four living generations, I caught a glimpse of what I've missed. When a family shares the land for so long, they put down roots. They know each other and they know their history. Stories of old are told and retold and the children learn what it means to belong.
I think it's a blessing, this belonging, a blessing no longer enjoyed by so many among us. It was an honor to be witness to a family who knows what it is to be a family, for better or worse, in sickness and celebration. Thank you for sharing your dust.
1 comment:
It is a blessing to belong, there was some semblance of belonging so long ago in my life,but God took my broken life,broken emotions,broken home, broken children,broken marriage, broken relationships, and He made me new again, I cried like a baby when I read your blog on dust, maybe I just needed a good cry, I haven't needed to cry in a long time,but I felt a loss all of a sudden. You are gifted in your writing, I am proud of you. "Other Momma"
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