Quiet contemplation results in answers, book for local rancher
Sep. 29—Farmers and ranchers stay busy from sunrise to sunset and several hours beyond that. With the work and the busyness of the day it is easy for some to lose sight of the beauty of the land and the wonders that many see as God's creation.
As Kody Kind works the family ranch south of Chapman he notices the little things — the crevices in the limestone, the wandering path a creek takes before being swallowed up by a river, subtle breezes.
In his observations he sees God's work and how the way nature presents itself correlates to issues in one's life. Overtime he jotted down some of those observations. Those writings were recently published by Dorrance Publishing Company.
"A Ride through Heaven's Ranch" is a collection of poetic stories that describe the wonders Kind sees on his ranch and the messages they send him.
"It's about trying to search for those little things," he said of the book. "There's a lot of this and that about actually understanding what it means to sit out there by yourself. God blessed the land and God blesses every day."
The lessons God gives through nature are there for those who slow down a little bit and pay attention.
"If you're quiet enough, smart enough, to sit down and listen to it, it can lead you in the right direction," he said. "You get a little more appreciation for the breath you get to breath in each day."
Before any thought of publishing a book came about, Kind was searching for answers to some of life's puzzles.
Although baptized in the Methodist Church, he said his family didn't go to church every Sunday. It wasn't until after high school and college, as he was entering the adult world that he started exploring what his personal belief system was, found God and started down his own path.
"I don't want to say I hit rock bottom but I used to rodeo and I kind of hit a point where I had a lot of bad going on," he said. "I didn't have a lot of good going through my heart or mind. I just turned to Him, I didn't have much else to say besides I was His, just please help; and he sure enough did."
That help came in part by learning the importance of observation. The only way he could find answers was to go, sit outside and figure them out for himself. As he watched the world around him, those answers started coming, and Kind put them to paper.
But the words are not sermons, nor are they bland explanations of what he has observed. Kind's words are narrative poetry, which paints a picture that entices all the readers' senses.
His family recognized the power of his written word and supported his quest to get them published, something that he hadn't really thought would happen. At least not to the extent it did.
"(The book is) only 33 pages long," he said. "I didn't know that they were going to take all the poems or short stories. So, I sent in just a couple to see if one of them could get published and they ended up making it a collection. Most of (the narrative poems) are titled based on where I'm sitting, or where I'm perched at when I go into my deep thoughts and just describing everything around me. Every little lesson I can find is trying to really show everyone how much beauty and wisdom there is out there without having to say a word or having to look any deeper than just the plain facts."
"A Ride Through Heaven's Ranch" is available for $12 on Amazon and at https://bookstore.dorrancepublishing.com/a-ride-through-heavens-ranch/. Kind said he also hopes some of the area libraries will pick it up.
