Pickin'

Early Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed to Clermont to pick some berries.  As we drove out of the city and started to drive past big open fields I felt a calm and peaceful feeling deep in my heart.  I mentioned to Jordan how sad it is that humans make the earth so much uglier than it is naturally... That we can't even come close to competing with God. 

These big open fields full of trees and wildflowers blowing in the wind literally took my breath away.  I have always thought of that expression as merely just a figure of speech.  A way to describe something as very beautiful... but I literally felt my breath escape me for a moment.  Perhaps it was not just the view, but also spending time with my family all together too that made me feel so much gratitude to God.  For He not only created the beautiful earth but He created each of us individually and joined us together as a family.  There is nothing I would rather do and nobody I would rather be with.  I want to explore this world and see everything that He created from small blueberry patches in Florida to the mountains of Switzerland (although the later may take a bit longer to save up for;)) and I want to do it with these people by my side.  I am a defender of motherhood.  I am a defender of the family. And the older I get, the more I become a defender of our environment.