Hay Bales
Today’s story might be one of those had to be there stories, but I will try to capture it.
On the road I travel to get home, there is a field. Several times a year they harvest the field to make the big round hay bales. Every time I see them I think of Michaela. Now you might ask why hay bales make me think of M and I will tell you.
Many years ago on a road trip to North Dakota, M commented how much she liked them as a photographer. She loved the composition of the image - the lines, colors, perspective, and so on. So we stopped to take photos of them often.
We traveled all over for her work and if I look through ALL the photos she took I know I can safely say we probably have at least one if not more photos from each of those trips that are of hay bales. Hay bales in California, in Texas, in Ohio, in Iowa, in Oklahoma, in New Mexico and every other state we passed through for our travels. I think eventually I might need to prove this and gather all those photos together to make a photo book of just hay bales.
Taking photos of hay bales became a thing so you know how when many people pass cows on road trips they point them out to say, “cows!” (Side note why do we do that?) Anyway I started doing that with hay bales. Well M being M with me treating them like seeing cows in a field she made up a story for the hay bales.
The round hay bales like those in the image below are free range hay bales in their natural environment . If they are all gathered together and stacked they were domesticated and ready to be shipped off to be slaughtered.
If you knew her, she could be so animated and dramatic when telling a story. She plastered it on with fake sobs for the ones stacked as she said they didn’t even realized that soon they were to be carted off and slaughtered. The free range hay bales, she would tell them to enjoy their time being free range and in their natural state. She would say things like, “Be free little hay bales, be free, frolic and enjoy your time here where you belong” in a sing song voice.
It became our joke every time we saw hay bales - even the ones near our house. When I pass them now, sometimes I laugh and other times I cry. She had this creative mind that worked in ways that made me laugh so much. I won’t get to hear her spontaneously create a story like that again and that makes me sad. At the same I laugh and smile at the memory. I am deeply grateful that I got to experience that creative mind by standing next to her for 17 years.
So next time you pass hay bales, please think of M and know she would be taking a photo of those free range hay bales.
