To School Through the Fields

I just finished a little book that I've been reading as a reference for Periwinkle. A sweet little memoir written by Alice Taylor about her childhood growing up in rural Ireland, County Cork to be exact. Such a simple account and yet I can see why it was Ireland's #1 best seller.

I had always wished I grew up on a farm. Even when I was young I was almost angry at my parents for being city dwellers. Perhaps I knew then that I was missing something.

My parents tried to convince me I was wrong. That living on a farm would have been too much work for me. I thought they were wrong, and after reading this book I know they were. In fact, there's a part of me that mourns for our society that does not have their feet buried in the fields, their hands to a plow, and their hearts in the country.

I missed learning how to do so very much.

Living on a farm was hard work, but it was the kind of work that brought people and families together. And as demonstrated in this memoir, it gave people a sense of well being. Taylor remembers grown men jumping over fences and dancing in the kitchen for no other reason than they are filled with joy. It makes me wonder if people can ever be that alive again, that happy?

If you want to take a step back in time, to a place where the fields are gold with grain, the cows roam the pastures, the rivers run free, then pick up this book, and the others like it from Alice Taylor!