Something I love about nature is the prairies of the Midwest. The entire western half of the United States has big sky, but only the prairies have the uninterrupted, panoramic, as far as the eye can see view of the sky. It makes for breathtaking sunsets and unbelievable storm viewing. What the prairies lack in mountains and trees, they make up for in the personality of the wall clouds that roll in. The vastness of the sky and the rolling fields can make you feel small in the same way as the ocean. Because the beauty is more subtle, something equally subtle like the twinkling of fireflies and the chirping of crickets is not so easily missed.
I have a special love for the prairies because I was raised in the Midwest. You get a special sense of place in your childhood - the prairies will always be the geography that feels most like how things are supposed to be in my mind, no matter how many decades I live elsewhere, no matter how much I love and enjoy the mountains. And we get to go visit them next week! I'm grateful for the rolling hills of the Midwest.
(The quote in the picture is Willa Cather. I can also get down with John Muir's "Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.")
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