After nearly two weeks of visiting family and friends in Pennsylvania, ANALYST is feeling refreshed, revitalized, and ready to return to the challenges of the investigation at hand. Traveling can be such a valuable learning experience, especially when it involves exposure to a culture that’s so different from the one you live in on a regular basis. Pennsylvania certainly isn’t an exotic locale, but the rural lifestyle that ANALYST’s brother enjoys on his organic farm in Western PA is a dramatic change from everyday life in Palm Beach.
It’s nice to be reminded that there are always options in life. The days don’t have to be loud or crowded or hectic. It is busy on the farm, but it’s not a rushed type of busy. There’s always time to play with the kids, to bake a homemade birthday cake, or to sit around and chitchat at the end of the day.
Sometimes the farm feels like a magical place, where apples taste like candy even when they’re not dipped in chocolate. Where carrots aren’t just orange, but come in a rainbow of colors. Where chicken livers are so good you go back for thirds, (instead of giving up after a few bites and feeding them to the dog). Where there’s nothing you’d rather do on a Saturday morning than help the little ones raid daddy’s strawberry patch, red juice dripping from their smiles.
Life can be so sweet when we take the time to taste it.
*Image One is a cross-section of a purple carrot.
