When I was a teenager, there were exactly two places I said I would never live: Texas, because I’d met a few Texans who were awfully impressed with themselves (and acted like they owned Colorado)! And Kansas, because it was – and I quote the arrogant teenager me: “SOOOOO flat.” And yes, I probably used the words flat and ugly in the same sentence…… shame on me!
I grew up smack-dab in the middle of paradise, aka The Rocky Mountains. I KNEW what beautiful looked like, thank you very much, and it was not flat nothingness.
Well. I’m writing this from my farmhouse on the High Plains of Kansas, so you can see how that turned out.
So, Is Kansas Really Flat? Ugly?
Here’s something funny I learned just this week: Kansas isn’t even the flattest state! It’s seventh. The flattest state in the good old USA is Florida! When’s the last time you heard anybody complain about how flat Florida is? But of course, poor Kansas is very much on the “ugliest state” list, ranked by people whose entire experience of it is the view from I-70 at 75, 80, 90 miles an hour.
That’s kind of like telling me how good a book is by how the cover looks from across the room.
They call this ugly. I call it a beautiful Tuesday morning walk with Breeze.
Old corn stalks waiting for the next crop. And even they get dressed up in gold some evenings
The Secret
Love led me here….my husband is a Kansas farmer. It actually was the only thing that COULD have led me here. The prairie didn’t win me over on day one.
Mountains announce themselves. They stand up and demand your admiration. These High Plains don’t do that. They make you slow down, get quiet, and pay attention…and then it hands you a sunrise that sets the whole sky on fire, a meadowlark singing on a fence post, wind moving through the grass like water. Somewhere along the way I stopped comparing it to the mountains.
That was the secret, I think. You don’t compare the places you love. You just love each one for what it is.
FYI…… Just to be clear: I do NOT love my achingly beautiful mountains any less because I love this prairie!
So, never say never. And if you’re ever driving through Kansas… maybe take the slow road.
Thanks for being here, and come again!
Good Thoughts
Do not ask the prairie to climb, and do not ask the mountain to flatten. Enjoy the height of one and the depth of the other. – Unknown
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