The first time I ever looked at a prairie outside, not in a car, I was on a viewing area that had a trail that went into the prairie, but it was shut at that time. So I stood and looked at it. It was unnerving. The vastness with nothing but sky and soil. And the kind of odd quiet that is right in front of you, instead of the distant quiet of a mountain in winter, where it is so quiet you can hear a pin drop, but the prairie ...it's like...well, not otherworldly like the desert, but unnerving. If you are used to mountains, water, sand, rock displays and all the various distractions in landscapes, the prairie will peel that all off and make you face it, if you can. I couldn't that day. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.
It wasn't till years later, that it finally took me into it's arms and I haven't forgotten it. I don't think I can now.
Like Charles Ingalls, I understand how the prairie takes you and won't let you go. Although his daughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the prairie books (Little House On The Prairie Series books~based on her life as a young child in the prairie), it was actually her father that got "taken" by the prairie. There is some kind of saying about the prairie about this, being taken, but I forget the saying. It was told to me when I lived in Kansas. And sure enough, it happened. I really have a hard time being interested in living anywhere else. Except, by the ocean. I can live there too.
Even when Charles was sick and old and heading towards the Heavens, he asked his daughter to take him out on the wagon to the prairie, just so he could be in it again. I really , really understand this.
I was walking on a trail once that had patches of native prairie that looked different every year, but this year, I walked down a hill and was smothered with fragrance I somewhat recognized and somewhat didn't. It stopped me cold. It was so lovely and I tried in vain to figure out what fragrance was making what fragrance, but I couldn't, so many flowers and insects everywhere! critters love the prairie, but the tall grass, if you don't have strong immunity to those various plants that would touch your whole body and the various seeds that would stick to your clothes, well....just bring tissues and take a hot shower afterwords. I am assuming the Native peoples of the area were used to it or made well worn paths thru it. I can't imagine how they did it, but I'm sure they knew.
I have , in fact, been embraced by grass.
It was same trail as I just mentioned, but the trail shot off in a different direction and not like in the Rockies, where you have to hike for at least half of an hour before being in wilderness. In the prairie it's immediate. I went down the hill and was heading towards another hill when this stand of deep brown/burgundy grass was gently moving in the wind. Right when I was in front of them I had an over-whelming feeling of something reaching out to me. I searched my mind and the area for what it could be. I saw no animals and no people. It was alittle bit like a time-slip feeling. Very minutely. And then I looked at the tall stalks of grass there and as I got closer to them, the feeling got stronger and I realized it was the grasses reaching out to me. I touched them and pulled upward gently along their stalks and had a feeling of love and embracing. I talked to them and I felt that I didn't want to leave them, but I had to go. Grasses tend to be very positive in nature, although not all of them. They like being free like that, being able to go to seed and recycle themselves. They are surprisingly sweet-natured and I think it's why the prairie got a hold of me.
And the thing is, the prairie, when left untouched, will have the same colors in the fall, as trees do. Same colors with dots of flowers here and there, it's truly stunning. But so much of it has been cut away, most don't get to witness it. I don't yearn for the leaves turning in the fall, I yearn to see the prairie do it and watch the grass move like water when the wind blows on it.
I'd like to get up to South Dakota and see how I feel up there. Most of the state is prairie, tall or short grass, it's there and I wanna (slang for 'want to') experience it.
I just this morning, felt the urge to write alittle bit about my love for the prairie and I'd like to learn more about the shortgrass prairie. Thanks for reading if you did!
Images from: www.freeimages.com