My Boundary

Morning Sky

Most of my life was lived in towns and cities. Boundaries are very important, usually marked with fences and walls.

In Kimberly, Wisconsin in the 60s boundaries were marked with short fences, mostly so the kids would stay out of the gardens. I got yelled at more than once when I accidentally crossed a boundary into a neighbor’s property. Note: Avoid that scary lady on the corner and STAY ON THE SIDEWALK. In those days my boundary was the block we lived on. No crossing the street without a parent.

In Phoenix, Arizona in the 70s boundaries were walls, short ones in front, tall ones in back, barbed wire for the horses (We didn’t have horses, but if you had ½ acre you could keep one in the city.). I loved looking at the huge variety of walls all over the city, some ornate, some rustic, some simple and functional. The best part about the wall in our back yard was the wildlife. Birds perched there to look for food. Lizards (the blue-bellied swift) ran along the walls and sunned themselves at the top. Did you know that when you catch one, they shed their tails?

When we first moved to the country in the 90s, I was obsessed with getting a wall, or at least a fence, you know, something to mark the boundary between my family and the neighbor’s. My husband, having spent most of his life in the country, was not concerned. To begin with, our place was a five-acre lot with a shed and a house planted somewhere in the middle and a driveway leading up to it. After a while I noticed the neighbors mowed only part of their acreage, leaving 100 feet or so to go wild where the property lines were. Now, if you look you will see the practice has grown into small strips of woods between properties, mostly in the back, with imaginary boundaries in the front where we all take turns mowing so it looks nice from the highway. I’m not sure any of us are confident where our land ends and theirs begins. If somebody new moves in, we’ll have a surveyor out to mark it or find the original posts. But for now, boundaries are fuzzy and the only thing really wanting to get through are the deer.

Deer have no boundaries.

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" The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me." - Psalm 16:5-6

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House from the driveway looking east 1997