Long has been my desire to live along a dirt road.  I surmise it represents adventure down a less traveled path, living outside the box or perhaps my rebellious nature resisting modern life’s intrusion on every blade of grass.

It is, in reality, all of these and more.

Life along a dirt road requires simpler rules than that of the outside electronically, fast-paced modern world.  While driving and riding along its deliberate trail – the pace is much, much slower – otherwise you will surely miss something.  Countless are the times I’ve stopped to move turtles from the middle of the road or rustle a few wildflowers from a ditch or to simply sit and gaze across a vast pasture.  The air smells sweeter along this unpaved path and rare is the time that a horn is honked – unless, of course, it is a passing neighbor who ventured off the beaten track as well.  We continue to experience days that drift two and three in a row that we never see another car ramble by.

Now how can modern life compete with that?

I think back on our decision to move here to the dirt road and the questions from our friends, old neighbors and loving family, “……why would you want to move on a dirt road...”

My answer remains, “Why not?”

My dirt road is my beach, my quiet path and my thinking journey on cool, crisp morning walks with the occasional armadillo encounter.  Bluebirds dot the fence lines as if to escort my way up the hill and back.  Cows are scattered across the fields greeting the new day while a new born calf’s first morning is safeguarded by the sacred landscape of this dirt road.  At a day’s end, this dirt road becomes embraced with intimate, soft ribbons of low lying fog that weave through the fence posts and scattered hay bales.  At night, this road fades into a gently worn path through a sleepy hollow that lies at the basin of seemingly endless pastures.

It represents withdrawal from trend and the ability to retreat to seclusion, to be seduced by nature and the privilege to be captured in awe by our Creator while living surrounded by His incredible creation.  To discover evidence of those who first roamed this land, to uncover the history of this once cultivated expanse, to be blessed with the opportunity to work this soil for it to bear fruit and to steward the surrounding habitat to ensure its wildlife will endure are among the many reasons we chose this – the dirt road.

While I enjoy modern convenience and some degree of mingling with the masses on occasion, I simply can not wait to feel our truck leave the asphalt pavement and meet the earthen path that leads the way home.

Harriette K. Jacobs

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