Alyice on May 6th, 2008

Spring In South Dakota

It’s finally spring in South Dakota and I couldn’t be happier. Winters are often a dead time of year as everyone hibernates inside. You rarely see someone walking the streets. You never see kids playing in the school yard or the local park. You don’t hear birds singing from their treetop homes. And the skies look dreary and haunting.

But with spring comes renewed life as one by one the birds flock back to their treetop homes, baby bunnies leave their burrows in search of food, cows return to the pastures, and farmers return the land. And that’s what makes South Dakota so appealing to me.

Living on the west coast made it difficult to tell one season from the next. Our winters looked no different than our summers, springs, or falls. Some days were hotter than others, some days were wetter than others, but all in all they pretty much looked the same: blue skies followed by grey skies followed by a little rain and then sunshine. The streets were always busting with people frantically moving about as they scuttled from one appointment to the next. And except for a few pigeons and sea gulls, wildlife was basically non-existent—unless, of course, you paid an entrance fee.

So for now I am happy to call South Dakota home.

It is here that I can slow down long enough to not only smell the flowers but embrace nature. And it is here that I can get my “city fix”. Just by taking a drive to Sioux Falls or Rapid City I can immerse myself in modern civilization and then return to my small hometown where tractors driving down the street are as common as a bus driving down a metropolis street.

Until next time…