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My grandaddy is a farmer. I was raised on our little bit of land and there was never a year when at least two massive gardens were not planted; most of the time there were three to four. Now in his 80s he still plants and tends the garden, and does so with an enthusiasm. His dad also planted on that soil, and before him - I recently discovered - another family had a home on the property which was built in the 1800s. No doubt, they also had tilled the earth.
Indians and Boyhood
When I was a boy, running around on that old land, I imagined that indians also lived there. In that kind of country setting, right on the banks of the Hatchie river, it was easy to still see how they could have lived and how perfect the location would have been.
In my adult years I have learned that the natives did in fact occupy the land. Several books have been written on the subject. However, we've only recently seen evidence of them come to the surface.
Tilling Up Stones
An arrowhead found by my grandfather, Dovey Stafford, in his garden near the Hatchie river.
Over all the years that the same soil has been tilled up and the rocks thrown out, my grandaddy didn't find a legitimate arrowhead until recently.
Life is like this.
Sometimes it takes quite a bit of digging and throwing away of the old stones to find what you're really looking for: the thing that you knew was there but only believed so by faith, not by evidence.
So, keep tilling up the stones in your life. With patience and time, good things will come to the surface.