A Red Dirt Girl

A Red Dirt Girl

In the Carolina Piedmont, tilled red dirt awakens its drowsy neighbors, like slumbering oaks and pine trees, and calls them out to play. Every spring the plants, trees, soil and animals secretly hold a great and festive reunion. Natures excited burst of color and frenzied growth speaks to the forest rejuvenation and foreshadows our journey to remember the past and grow as well.

Miranda Lambert’s song, “Red Dirt Girl” illuminates a woman’s respect for her home place and roots but also explores her desire to live unbridled and experience the world “just like a gypsy . . . cause gypsys never get tied down.” Nearly all people experience this struggle – to grow but also respect your past. People can appreciate their roots and honor them by respecting the sacrifices people made to help them along the way.

While respect looks and sounds like a lot of different things, generally respect is shared with others through kind acts or words and cultivated with time and patience. There are many idioms and old timey sayings, like ‘you reap what you sow,’ which hint to the link between place and respect. So when I hear these metaphors I think of red clay soil, of home and the memories sown there.

You, like this red dirt girl, have many innate abilities that were fostered by your family, friends and community. Childhood memories of home travel with us across time and space and continue to shape our present lives and relationships. The challenge to all people, including myself, is to keep moving forward and growing without forgetting your past and remaining thankful along the way.