1. Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a tractor.
2. "Vacation" means going to Sioux Falls for the weekend.
3. You measure distance in hours.
4. You know several people who have hit deer more than once.
5. You often switch from "heat" to "a/c" in the same day.
6. You use a down comforter in the summer.
7. Your grandparents drive 65 mph through
13 feet of snow during a blizzard, without flinching.
8. You see people wearing
hunting clothes to social events.
9. You install security lights on your house
and garage and leave both doors unlocked.
10. You think of the major food groups
as venison, walleye and brats.
11. You carry jumper cables in your car
and your girlfriend knows how to use them.
12. There are seven empty cars running in the
parking lot at the grocery store at any given time.
13. You design your kid's Halloween
costume to fit over a snow suit.
14. Driving is better in the winter
because the potholes are filled with snow.
15. You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and flannel pj's.
16. You know all four seasons:
almost winter, winter, still winter
and road construction.
17. It takes you three hours to go to the store
for one item even when you're in a rush
because you have to stop to talk to everyone in town.
18. You actually understand these jokes and
forward them to all your friends from South Dakota.
We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been
- a place half - remembered and half-envisioned we can only
catch glimpses of from time to time. Community.
Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with
passion without having the words catch in our throats.
Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us,
eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate
with us whenever we come into our own power.
Community means strength that joins our strength
to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to
hold us when we falter. A circle of healing.
A circle of friends. Someplace
where we can be free.
Starhawk
"Cloudy Days"
midi by
 2003 Bruce DeBoer
Used with permission of the composer.
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