It’s a just another weekday afternoon in the spring in western North Dakota, an area that has achieved some notoriety in the public’s mind following an oil boom-many may have never thought about these places before. For those of us who live in North Dakota, the west is something else- still a place where our minds and our thoughts can diffuse out across the prairie grasslands and badlands. Restlessness of the city is lost as I roll down the high line.

Taking refuge in a downtown in a coffee house to stoke up and get some work done, it’s an unexpected but familiar feeling when one of my favorite bands plays on the just exactly perfect sound system. A slow wave of feeling settled finds me, even though I’m a few hundred miles from home as the dark roast boasts its smooth and sensual flavor on my palate and into my thoughts.

I think all of us look for ways to feel connected to our communities, our families, our friends, and our surroundings. As I have gotten older, these things seem more important. It doesn’t always have to be profound, it just has to sink in- we need to stay open and attuned to possibilities and let them filter through….and find them wherever they may be.

Well, this job I got, it’s a little too hard…..