Dust

As I listened to the radio recently, these David Lee Murphy lyrics resonated with me:

"There might be a little dust on the bottle, but don't let it fool you about what's inside."

Yes, those words are from a country song. I have found country music more relatable since moving to the West in 2007 (has it been five years already since I packed up and moved to Jackson, WY?).  Furthermore, in all the driving I have done throughout the northern Rockies, I have noticed that in many of the very rural areas that abound out here if there is a radio station at all, it will be a country station, and there will be two country stations before there is a third station of any other variety. Might as well embrace it!

One thing about living in the country, or at least in a very old farm house on a gravel road in the country, is that there is a lot of dust. There is A LOT of dust! Holy Cow is there ever dust around here! If there were a swiffer duster permanently attached to my wrist in place of my hand, I could still not stay on top of all the dusting that needs to be done. That's how I feel anyway.  Needless to say, my wine rack is covered with dust, which means the above-mentioned song lyric describes the near constant state of my bottle collection.

A few weeks ago, Jeff and I attended a benefit event for a local community member who had spent several months in the hospital with a very serious health condition.  The benefit featured a live and silent auction, a home-cooked dinner, and several raffle contests. All items being raffled and auctioned were generously donated by local business and families.

As I took in the sizable crowd gathered during the auction, the appearances of the attendees ranged quite a bit. Most people wore a nice pair of jeans with a nice, clean shirt-- a look I have come to call Montana Casual. Some were dressed a bit nicer in slacks or skirts, and others looked as though they had come straight from the field-- as if they had barely enough time to slap the dust off their well-worn jeans. Sometimes you just can't shake it. When Country comes to town, you get it all.  What is important is that we were all there to give back to a family who needed a boost.

Any hard working country person is constantly shaking the dust off.  We show up to town with mud on our boots and dirt on our necks. But, all this mud and dust and dirt can't dim the fire in our eyes or the light in our hearts.