This work begs to be distributed by the town crier.

Most of us find that it is a full-time job just to keep up with our rapidly changing world. Technology and change mostly enrich our life, but it also inherently brings stress and takes away so much from family and relationships because of lost interactions. A little simplification is always good for the soul. Reading about life in uncomplicated form is also good for the soul. See and feel that of which the author writes as he leads us through the simplicity and beauty of life’s greatest pleasures. This heartfelt collection of prose will relax and mellow the heart as it explores life, love, beauty, nature, happiness, hardships, dreams, and nostalgic memories. This work is a timeless treasure of observations which uniquely capture the soft and gentle aspects of life.

Jim is the youngest of eleven children and grew up on a farm near the small rural town of Metamora, Indiana. His parents started their life together just before the Great Depression, so the children were raised with thriftiness, honesty, and old-school discipline. They worked hard in the fields with manual labor but were clever and innovative enough to find time for hard play as well. They adopted many of their parents’ values in their own adult life and were served well by them. That same family farm where they were raised still resides in the family over a hundred years after the grandparents settled there. Jim’s love for the land led to him owning part of that farm for 52 years and still counting. He also owned much of the valley surrounding it for much of his life. Growing up and living with nature in those hills and that valley has provided the backdrop and powerful inspiration for much of his writing.