Coming back to Kansas was a shock.

I feel like I was back in time – or on another planet – when we were abroad. Not just because of the richness of the culture and change in geography (topology), but because it felt like I was in a place that was alive. The temperature fluctuated between 50s and 70s with rain off and on the entire time we were there. The trees were green and the grass was thick. The rivers were all cresting from the surfeit of rain that was falling. The land was ALIVE.

Here in Kansas, everything is brown or yellow and it’s all dead. The corn is dead or dying in the fields. The yard has almost no grass left. The trees are dead.

Everything is DEAD.