Good stewards…

Life has been busy here on the Farm the past few months, and it has been easy for both the Man and I to forget about the simple beauty surrounding us.  We’ve been so focused on clearing fields and erecting fences in anticipation of our horses coming home that we haven’t ventured beyond the rock walls that border our open fields.  In seasons past, it was common for us to head off into the woods that surround our home, feeling like young boys on a grand adventure, but we had yet to give in to the “call of the wood” this summer.  When the Man suggested it earlier this evening, I was more than willing to grab my camera and follow him.  Oddly enough, we had never walked along the rock wall that borders the north side of the property, so we excitedly headed off in that direction.  The hard work we’ve been doing with the fields and fences have given me a new appreciation for every stone that was used to build these walls, and I was anxious to imagine their stories.  In places the walls were as intact as the day they were built.  In others, they were crumbling, and it was almost as if you could tell where one builder ended, and another took over.  In the more intact areas of the wall, great care had been taken to arrange the stones like a puzzle, creating a tapestry that would truly stand the test of time.  Beyond that the wall looked rushed, with loosely stacked rocks that had long since been ravaged by New England winters and the constant traffic of the wildlife within these woods.  Although I was captivated by the beauty surrounding me, with the multitudes of ferns and Mother Nature reclaiming the fields, the lesson of the rock wall was not lost on me.  Just as the Man and I are the stewards of this Farm, we are each given the responsibility to be good stewards in our own lives, and to those around us.  The choices we make in life are like those stones that once littered the fields of the Farm.  They accumulate, and the care that we use in the placement of these stones could effect those around us for generations to come.  I know the occasional choice may be the wrong one, and it may come tumbling down at our feet, but even then, we are given the chance to replace it with better care.