Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harvest Moon
On the sixteenth of Spring, Karen gave birth to a brown haired little girl. After a good deal of discussion, arguing, and stress, we settled on naming her Cassandra after my mother. Shortly after Cassie's birth, Ann and Cliff had a red haired boy they named Stephen.
Year after year flew by in a rush. Eventually, the Kiefu Farm became the primary source of income for Flowerbud Village. Not only did the farm bring money in, but it also supplied income to the village in the form of providing jobs for several people. Kent and Stu kept working with us, as well as Ann, Cliff, and Karen. May, Zach's daughter, even occasionally came over to do some babysitting for Ann and Karen.
After the four of us got married, it seemed to start a trend. Within a year, all of the eligible bachelors and bachellorettes had been married. Jeff married Elli, Gray married Popuri, and Maria married Harris. Oddly enough, they all seemed to have their kids at nearly the same time.
Five years after I had arrived in Flowerbud Village, I found myself sitting on the front porch of my house, Karen nuzzled into my side. All of the outside fields were filled with vibrant grass, and had a dozen cows grazing in them. Chickens pecked the ground around the walkways and near the greenhouse, occasionally squawking in terror as the growing Cassie or Steve chased them around the yard. In the background, I could hear Cliff and Ann having one of their normal, heated arguments. They would argue for hours, I knew, but you would never know it to see them afterwards. Even after so much time, they were still deeply in love with each other. Just like Karen and I.
This, I understood now, really was the meaning of life. Just like Grandpa had said. This is how things were meant to be: we were meant to have a place and a family to call our own, and be able to fill our time doing work that fulfills us. That was the truth of life, I know knew. To live life to it's fullest, every moment of every day.
I pulled Karen tighter against my side. Today was a good day to live.