Between my home and studio next to the Susquehanna River and the Rutt HandCrafted Cabinetry plant in New Holland lie thousands of acres of some of our country's most fertile and productive farmland. In eastern Lancaster county, most of that land is divided into modest sized family farms, many of them Amish and Mennonite. During the growing season, it seems at times that the appearance of those fields changes almost as rapidly as the clouds passing overhead. This morning, I set out a little earlier than usual for my weekly product development team meeting, intent on spending a brief interlude amidst the crops with my sketchbook.
In the high summer, driving these narrow backroads through the tall corn is like following a dry, winding streambed down seemingly endless lush green canyons, the corn coming almost to the edges of the pavement. Especially in this season of tumultuous political discontent, it is a comfort to me to be lost in those quiet fields, if only for a little while. I'm reminded that storms come and go, change is constant and inevitable, and somehow there is always growth.
