I was visiting with a neighbor last week, and we were talking about the peace and quiet we often take for granted living in the country. We don’t have to contend with bright lights, noisy street sounds, smog, crowds, subway rides to get around or the hustle and bustle of the daily grind in the concrete jungle.

And while there are many advantages to living in urban areas — accessibility to grocery stores, theaters, entertainment, coffee shops and more — I wouldn’t trade the convenience of city living for the privacy and solitude that rural America has to offer.

In having this conversation, my neighbor mentioned that each time he steps outside his front door to work outside on his ranch, he feels a little closer to God. Of course, God feels close on good days when we have time to appreciate nature’s beauty and take an extra second to breathe in the fresh air and appreciate the views. And on the bad days, He’s still close, reminding us that He won’t throw us anything we can’t handle.

Take, for example, last Thursday. We discovered a set of twins born unexpectedly early during a blizzard. We didn’t have this cow penned up in the barn yet because she wasn’t set to calve for another three weeks. The calves were cold, but alive, and we rushed them to the house to warm them up.

READ: You can’t control the weather; you can control your attitude

Our toddlers — Scarlett and Thorne — were pretty excited to have one calf warming up in the entryway and the other in the bathtub. Little did they know how desperately we were trying to save them, with a little heat, some colostrum and plenty of prayers. Apparently, God heard our pleas for help because a few hours later, both the heifer and bull calf were up and running around the garage and ready to reunite with their mom in the barn.

It was a great moment for us, and we were extremely thankful the calves were going to be OK. It sure wasn’t a quiet moment on the ranch, but it made me appreciate the peace and quiet that followed once those calves were feeling better and out of the cold.

This month, BEEF has been celebrating the quiet moments that make ranch life so great. We asked readers to submit their favorite images for a chance to win a pair of Twisted X driving moccasins or a $50 VISA gift card.

You can view the entire gallery of entries by clicking here.

There is still time to enter the contest! We’ll be taking entries until noon today, and from there, we’ll narrow down the images to our finalists and announce our top entries tomorrow morning. Then, we’ll put the finalists to a vote, and you can help select our champions.

To enter the contest with your favorite quiet moments image, please email me at [email protected] Thanks for your participation in this contest! It’s been fun to view your photos throughout February.

The opinions of Amanda Radke are not necessarily those of beefmagazine.com or Farm Progress.