Vacation Day 14 – The Power of Flat

It is hard to explain the power of flat. For me it is one of the strongest pulls in my life. For my friends it doesn’t have the same tug on their lives. You see I am from the prairie and this country has a strong hold on my heart.

Last Saturday I traveled across this flat land south of Regina. It is big – very big. The sky above was absolutely clear. The land around me was dry. Spring is on its way across the prairie and all the signs are pointing to a new season again. The flat roads go forever – ending no where wherever that is…

One of the most notable little fellows that I met was Mr. Gopher. As I pulled over to take a shot of the countryside he popped out of his hole to take along look at me. He is a little prairie centurion guarding his small part of the world.

Later on as I walked through the tall grass, a gigantic, white Jack Rabbit bounced to life. He was still white in colour and very much alert to what I was doing. As he bounced off across the open field and then stopped to watch me – he stood on his hind legs with his long ears moving slightly to catch more information about me. In another field a coyote ran as fast as he could to make space between me and himself.

So many memories flooded my mind. So much of the past rushed after me as I walked the fields. There was the place below me where the ‘Little Dam’ used to be. It is a hay field now. Just to the left of it is what is left of the ‘Big Dam’ – which held more water for the farm. The excess of water that left the ‘Big Dam’ went over the spillway that allowed water to flow over it to fill the ‘Little Dam’. I remember my uncles and grandpa having to maintain the spillway so it would not wash out in the heavy rainy season. I can remember at least two times that it was completely washed out in the spring run off.

The ‘Big Dam’ is now a deeper slough but it is still providing water for the wild creatures living nearby. There as lots of animal tracks all around the water with many trails leading back to the prairie flat top.

As many of you read this – only a few will know the feelings that I have. They are feelings of pure magic. With a free Saturday all by myself – I basked in the magic- for over 14 hours alone.

I feel today as if I have been on a retreat for over six months. One day on the prairie does that for me.

Flash backs…
I have driven in downtown Toronto and searched in vain for one lowly parking spot. I have walked forever in the busy streets and had the dirty wind blow hard at me – with plastic bags swirling in the air around me.

I have lived and worked on the impossibly busy streets of Hong Kong – where everyone pushes and shoves to get on to the crowded buses. I have had people spit on the ground in front of me because it was the only free spot of cement ground to do so – there were just too many legs and people moving to find another clear space. I learned to jump the spittle when it was fired near me.

I have crawled out of the subways systems in Toronto, Hong Kong, Montreal and New York City – to mix with the masses of fellow human beings. The smell of exhaust of the trucks and cars were the first breath of fresh air that filled my lungs coming out of the subways stations. In all of these four cities there were no Gophers, no Jack Rabbits and no wild life of any kind.

Living in Hong Kong was the extreme with 7 Million people living on 400 square miles of land – that is 20 miles by 20 miles in dimensions. On Saturday I crossed over land that measured well over 4 Hong Kongs and you may have found about 20 people – if they were home that day.

Oh Lord… – these places I have lived and worked are so far from this piece of heaven that you created - Saskatchewan. How did I every think it would be more romantic in these other places? The old thoughts of my wanting to get away from this area and to leave some day – are almost comical now. But I well remember riding on that old tractor pulling a plow and thinking… “I wonder if I will ever get away from here…?” I remember dreaming of ‘somewhere’ that must be a long ways over the horizon in all directions.

The following pictures may tell the story better than my words do at this minute… I am kind of choked up on all of this prairie fresh air and all the abundant memories.

Flash Forward...
Two weeks from today I will arrive in Nairobi, Kenya... the tug to see what is at the end of the road is still there...

Thanks for praying for our family.

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~