this land is our land

going out to the property. she opens the gate. closes the gate. she helps drive the bumpy road. it's a tradition i've grown to love...
when i met Pat he was living in a bus out in the desert. just ten miles from my mountain, but sometimes it seems like another world completely. flat. dry and dusty. harsh and rather unforgiving land. the vegetation- thorny. but the sunsets are unbelievable. the nights wide open and quiet. no power lines running overhead. no phone lines. just a whole lotta room to run. we are now in the planning stages of a home out there. i wrestle with this. i have the opportunity to practice what i preach in living off the land. off the grid. in a homestead we develop as a family. and this scares me. i have grown comfortable on the mountain. i feel secure in the control i have here. it's mine. when i'm out there i feel i'm on foreign territory. his.
this morning i had an appt. in town and left the kids with pat. pulling up to the turnoff to the property i saw my family. walking. talking. being. and there was peace. more than that - a realization of something bigger than 'mine' or 'his'... this land. it's ours. an empty canvas...

for the first time i saw the picture he's been trying to describe. as th5 would say ...
'it made my heart very happy."