The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

Cindy's Corner

Discussion

June 11, 2010

Oh, how the landscape sings

By Cindy Allen, Managing Editor CNHI

ENID —  

Several years ago when I was publisher of a southeast Kansas newspaper, I participated in a state leadership program that had me travel throughout the state of Kansas. Two of those trips involved forays into the far-west parts of the state, such as Garden City and Colby.

 

 And, within that same year when I had the opportunity to come to Enid and I made the drive here for the interview, that landscape called me again.

 

I was reminded of the beauty of this landscape when my husband and I and friends took a motorcycle ride to Okarche this week. There is nothing better than an early summer motorcycle ride, particularly when the combines are in the wheat fields and you can smell the freshly-cut wheat. There is a dusty haze in the air, and the landscape takes on a kind of bleary, purplish hue. When the sun is setting against that hue, it just makes my heart sing.

 

Sitting on the back of a motorcycle going 65 mph down the highway gives you a lot of time to think. You can’t talk because it’s too noisy. So I just look around, take in the details of the atmosphere – something you can’t do riding in a car. You hear everything, you smell everything and it does something a little different to your senses.

 

I have found riding on the back of a motorcycle is sometimes a good time to meditate and commune with the Almighty. This kind of time helps bring perspective and appreciation.

 

I’ve been here for more than eight years now.  A lot of changes have occurred since our time here – the death of parents, the adulthood of children and the casual growing into our own upper-middle age years. I have a lot to be thankful for. Enid and Oklahoma have been good to me.

 

It was good to be reminded of the beauty of northwest Oklahoma and the sense of comfort and belonging I feel here in this landscape.

 

 

 

 

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