Description:
Through memoir, history, and philosophy of land use, a lover of her Mennonite farm childhood assesses farming's impact, comparing settler values of land ownership to those of first peoples viewing themselves as owned by the sacred homeland.
Brief description: Raylene Hinz-Penner was born and raised in southwest Kansas near Liberal, with extended family and emotional roots in central Oklahoma. For decades she taught English at Bethel College, her alma mater (along with Kansas University in Lawrence and Wichita State University). She is the author of Searching for Sacred Ground: The Journey of Chief Lawrence Hart, Mennonite (Cascadia, 2007).
Review Quotes:
"Beautiful and deeply researched, this meditation on a farm on the Oklahoma panhandle took a lifetime to write. From the Inland Sea, to Coronado's exploits, to Comancheria, to the Dust Bowl, to her parents bent on farming after World War II, it is a love song to place and the story of one thoughtful person's change of heart and mind. Structured by the seasons-like the liturgy or life on the land-this book is made to savor. See if it doesn't change you too." -Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Author, As Is
"This book is so rich-as we have come to expect from Raylene's pen. From her youthful perch atop the perfectly stacked alfalfa bales, Penner looks over the sandy soil of the family's dairy farm to the horizons and ponders the mysteries, the spirits of former residents. In rich prose and poetry, the author explores her places of origin and dares to probe the mythologies that have long sustained her people." -John Sharp, Author, My Calling to Fulfill: The Orie O. Miller Story