I am just back from two days at the Midwest Women in Agriculture conference. I met great women who are each finding paths through the challenges posed by lives immersed in agriculture. Some of them grew up in farming families as children and are dedicated to raising their own kids in the same environment. Some of them are "city girls" who married farm boys and are adjusting to life in rural America. Others were like me, involved in agriculture in a peripheral manner, through profession or hobby.

One thing I got from most everyone I was able to talk with was her sense of spirituality. There was not a whole lot of shallowness in the gathering. When you rely on Mother Nature to provide for your livelihood, it's difficult to go it alone. Before meals, we were asked to observe a moment of silence—I've honestly never heard a room of 150 women go quiet like that before!

Kelly Easterday, a Purdue University Extension educator from Kosciusko County, Indiana, requested: "Let's please take a moment of silence and return thanks in your own way."

That was the nicest way I'd ever been led into a moment of prayer or observance. Allowing everyone to recognize her faith on her own was totally unassuming and brought together the whole group without imposing on anyone.