Landscape of My Soul

My friend Mo is a wise woman.  She often eloquently says to me what I have been thinking and she offers a wisdom that makes me think outside of my self-determined boundaries.  In a recent conversation, she told about how her brother sees where he lives as the landscape of his soul.  In other words, he can't see himself living anywhere else because the place he calls home is so connected to his being.  That description, landscape of the soul, is an apt word picture for how I feel about the Baraboo Bluffs.  While picking blueberries with my friend Ellen one recent Saturday morning, I knew in the depths of my being that the hills and farm fields around us somehow owned me.  I could have stood there for hours, just gazing at that view. I belonged to those hills and farmlands far more than they belonged to me.  My soul was tied to that landscape, always has, always will.  I feel the same way when at Devil's Lake State Park and other beautiful, natural places around our community.  Those places bring me peace, contribute to the meaning of my life, and give me a sense of belonging that is startlingly more important with each passing year.  I appreciate Mo putting those emotions into words for me, for indeed, this place is the landscape of my soul.