This Land

Just past the beehives, the blueberries, and the asparagus, the fields are being prepared for the spring planting. The cover crops, planted in the winter to prevent erosion and improve the soil, are close to being tilled under. Inside the greenhouse, tiny seedlings are sprouting to life. Mike kneels in…

Kris and Nicole Crawford stand apart.

They waited to kiss one another until they were standing at the altar. Instead of the standard luxury cars medical doctors often sport, Kris drives a 10-year-old black truck—a gift from his father-in-law—and Nicole a five-year-old gray sedan. Nicole gave up her profession and…

Even sitting still, Scott’s legs moved to an unheard drumbeat. Margee, meanwhile, folded her right leg underneath her and relaxed into the couch. She recounted their first years together, while he excused himself for a glass of water.

“That’s just how he is,” Margee said. “I’m content and he’s always…

Yiren Gallagher pores over Internet articles, calling out ideas with a thick accent to her husband James. He sits just a few feet away from her in their home office, scribbling down her ideas in a notebook; the pages fill up with creative inspiration. He’s her Michelangelo. She’s his Girl…

Nick Doctor and Mana Tahaie were married twice—once at Woodward Park with only a few family members present, then in Oklahoma City for the big one insisted upon by her mother and grandmother. On the way to that one, they got pulled over for speeding. The officer inquired if they…

After a month of being turned down, Rusty got the green light on a date with Colleen.

“I picked her up in my junky car that was made from three different cars,” he laughs. “I had lamely asked her if she would like to come watch my band play.”

Colleen…

“I was casting for a production and I was hired to find people to dance for a musical about the Tulsa Race Riots,” Jamin Brasongré says. “I went to her house to work on choreography.”

Brasongré knocked on the door and saw Gina Bradford’s father for the first time. “Mr.…

“I was blown away,” Phillip recalls the first day he met Fiawna at the now-closed record store, Mooch and Burn. “I had no idea where she came from.”

Packed in the back of the 15th and Harvard venue, which was the size of most people’s bathrooms, Phillip had no…

“I have zero ‘gay-dar’,“ Kimmie Michie laughs. ”I can’t tell when people are interested. I’m usually the last one to get it.”

Fortunately for Kimmie, Christy Sanders didn’t suffer from the same misfortune.

“It was instant love for me,“ Christy said. ”She was sitting on the floor of the den,…

Beau Rotramel drives musicians across the country; his job keeps him on the road for months at a time. The man needs companionship. And sandwiches and haircuts.

“I am the sandwich maker,” explains beautician Chrissie Meanwell, describing one of her duties when she visits Beau. She also cuts hair, makes…