When you’re in Montana time is irrelevant, maybe because you’re surrounded by geologic formations like numbers on a clock of gargantuan scale. Or maybe because when you’re at the Rahr’s ranch there are no reminders of the technological age we live in and are hooked into like an IV line. There are no phones, wifi, radios or televisions to remind anyone of schedules, to-do lists or news cycles. Regardless it was the passing of time that permeated the weekend as old friends forged new memories and reminisced over old ones. The weekend was filled with milestones – Lee’s 40th birthday, which was why we had all migrated to Montana; twenty years of friendship between Lee and myself; and exactly thirteen years since my last visit to the ranch.

The ranch is heaven on earth. All that is important – friendships, good food and wine, family, and fresh air are all that is important. Life is whittled down to its essentials – so much so that one phrase kept repeating itself over and over in my mind – a line from one of my favorite books growing up – “the whole world stills to listen”. It does that at the ranch, where you can sense the earth wants to be as quiet as it can so that it can hear every whisper. It doesn’t want to miss a thing about this place or what happens here. I know because I feel the same way when I’m there. You want to heighten every sense so that you can drink it all in and never forget the smell of the air, the light of the sun, and the people you’re sharing this place with. I only wish the clock had ticked a little slower and we were all still sitting on the porch drinking cocktails.