Things Couldn't be More Different...

In the mornings I wake up early and commute 42 miles to work.  Sometimes, depending on traffic, the drive only takes me 40 minutes.  Other times it may take me an hour and 40 minutes.  The commute is actually a peaceful time for me as I usually quickly catch the news on the radio while I drink my coffee and then I turn off the radio and pray.  Before I know it, I'm turning into the parking lot at work.  I work with some good people and we provide a good service in keeping the cogs in the wheels of industry turning.

I was thinking the other day about how the view at work couldn't be more different than the view I have at home.  The sounds couldn't be more different either.  From time to time, we'll hear loud hissing sounds and see huge flares, like you see in the photo below.  We always joke that they just burned off more in the flare stack in value than we'll ever make in 10 lifetimes.  Black smoke will billow out and we'll hear announcements over a loudspeaker that we cannot understand.  We wonder if we should run as fast as we can.

Then at the end of the day, I hop in my car and drive back home, moving from an industrial area into a pastoral one.  The hissing sounds, flares, black smoke, and warnings are replaced by the gentle cackling of hens as they make their way to their evening roosts, the bleating of goats and lowing of cows.  Instead of looking at chemical plants, I look at real plants in our vegetable garden.  The sun sets and the light show put on in the western sky is far better than a flare stack.

I'm truly thankful to God for clean, country living.