Stronger Orange Glow

We have been blessed with the return of summer sun around here.  It's not often that you can sit in a lawn chair on a Sunday evening in October in North Dakota without needing at least a sweatshirt to warm your bones.  Much less be able to wear tank tops and short sleeves.  That's pretty much unheard of and it is a gift.  One I will gladly soak up.  Throw in being at the farm arena surrounded by kids and horses and dirt and family and friends and it's like a perfectly made fall evening.  One that includes boys playing football off in the distant field.  

The setting sun is different in the fall.  I'm not sure if this is a science based statement or just what I feel and made up, but that big orange ball seems to slide quicker into the horizon and cast an even stronger glow as it makes its way down.  A glow that made me think all was right in the world as I watched Firecracker practice barrels on ol' Smokey. 

And as she bossed directions to her friend, I thought to myself, "There you go girl.  Find that voice and use it."  I've said before and I'll say it again.  Horses teach lessons.  Horses give confidence.  Horses are love to those little beings that sit on their backs. 

After leaving the arena to go back to my lawn chair, I felt blessed.  Blessed to have the farm to go to when I need a fix of remembering who I am and where I came from. 

Blessed to have the chance to see kids growing up the way they should. 

Growing up daring and dirty and carefree while blazing their own way.  Growing up thinking they can do anything.  Even if it's something they probably shouldn't do.    

Most of all, I felt blessed to have the family I do. The family that will invite the neighbor kids over so they can all find and experience that special love for those four legged animals that give so much.
 

And as the evening was drawing to a close and horses were being put away and kids were being wrangled to their vehicles to make their way home to that inevitable bath that awaited them all, this ran through my head. 

There is no better way to grow up than here.  Right here in the back of a pickup bed with faces and little hands covered in dirt.  Right here where there is freedom to run and explore and experience. 

Right here out in the open North Dakota air with that big orange ball making its final glow as it sets...magically casting that feeling of all is right in the world.  Breathe it in.  All is right. 

Shortly after you take this picture, your foot will be stomped on by a horse hoof and you will pinch the you know what out of your hand in a gate.  But still.  All is right.