Good Food, Good Times

Memories are tricky things.
Some of them are so readily available. Your first date, your wedding, your children's milestones.
Still, many of the memories of the mundane, the ways that we lived as children, or the people that are gone, are only pulled out of storage by certain things. A certain song, a smell, the color of an article of clothing, can send us back through the years, and the story of the time that the memory takes us to becomes clearer and sometimes we can even find ourselves reliving that moment.

Foods can be great reminders of times far back in our memories.
Food is specific to each family. Depending on our culture, the time that we lived, our income, and of course the skills of the people cooking it, every family has a very personal way of feeding itself.
Food is also something that we use to celebrate. The memorable times are so often marked by a special meal or a signature dish.
Christmas might always mean sugar cookies, or maybe it's the eye-rolling reaction to the yearly fruitcake that you remember.
Food is what we use to show people that we care. Meals when someone has a baby, or to comfort the grieving.

We are what we eat, in more ways than we know.

I was very blessed to come from a family that cooked.
My mom and my grandma had a pretty straightforward menu, and it was basic, but there are so many things that I learned from them, and so many memories of times that we all spent together.

I remember mom baking bread in her big brown bread bowl.
She always made "cracked wheat" and she really loved doing it!
My dad took his sandwiches to work for years; cracked wheat, with some kind of meat and cheese, wrapped in waxed paper. I still remember how she folded that waxed paper.
Her bread baking was something that made her feel close to the people that she was feeding.
Mostly we took store-bought bread to school, but that fresh baked bread would be there when we got home, and we could toast it and top it with butter and cinnamon and sugar.
I can smell that wonderful smell in my mind.

My grandma, Maggie, has also provided me with long remembered foods that were a part of spending time at her house.
She would make white rice, plain, and pile on the butter and salt and pepper. For some reason I have never been able to replicated the flavor and texture, but I do remember exactly how it tasted.
She would make the most delicious left-over chicken sandwiches. On white bread, and in a baggie, which mom never did (remember the waxed paper?) . Taking her lunches to school after spending the night was such a treat. She would always put in cookies that she had baked, and some kind of chips.

Grandma Maggie's kitchen 1960ish

Mom's apple pie is one thing that I really did learn how to make just like her. I am so glad! I can bake those and pass the love on to my own kids. That is a pie that is just unlike anything else. I enjoy baking them for the eating, but also for the remembering.

There are also things that our family used to do that now seem so special, and at the time I didn't appreciate them enough.
We used to pack up the cars and drive over an hour to Hurricane Ridge, which is in the Olympic National Park. We didn't pack a picnic lunch like everyone else. No, Grandma and Grandapa and Mom and Dad would pack up the kerosene stoves and bacon and eggs and coffee, and take it all up there early in the morning to fix breakfast on the mountain.
Smelling the bacon frying and the eggs spattering was just heavenly. It was usually cold up there, and grandma would always pack hot chocolate, or she would let us have coffee half and half with milk. I think I developed my love of coffee at those special times.

We would also pack meals to take to the beach. Cheese and crackers, hard salami, chips, cookies and the otherwise forbidden orange soda or root beer.

I think that it would be a very hard thing to hold on to memories without the sensory ties to those times.
I am so glad that my family went to the trouble of making the food so that we could make the memories.

There are a few things that I hope my kids remember:

Little smokey rolls and Christmases.
Angel food cake, with fluffy white frosting, and birthdays.
My mom's apple pie and family gatherings.
Buffalo Chicken Chili and eating dinner together.
Grilled chicken and warm summer evenings.

None of these foods are fancy, but they link us with love.

Bedroom Improvements

Tim has done a beautiful job on the new floor in our bedroom!

It looks so nice and I am so excited to do more on the project.

I worked on organizing the wardrobe and the closet, and got rid of a few things.

I don't want to have a lot of stuff sitting around after the project is done. I want it to be low maintenance and comfy. I want to add touches that make it a place that is truely a sanctuary.

It looks a lot more like that now, and that's just the beginning.

It's That Time Again....

Time for the house to express the Joy of the Christmas Season.
I love the season of Advent, of waiting for the birth of Jesus and waiting, in the larger sense, for His Second Coming!

Our homes should reflect that sense of Joy and expectancy.

We have so many more people coming and going in our home these days. I am so happy to be sharing our space! We are exploring so many things, and I am so happy to have a place in which to welcome people.

This house has been a blessing in so many ways and for so many purposes.
A place that welcomed us to Havre de Grace, a place where we have welcomed children and have raised and schooled them. It has been full of our friends, and their friends.
Homeschooling activities and family activities.

And now we are in a new phase and it is opening it's doors to a different purpose.
We are hosting several studies and groups on a weekly basis, and it is really a pretty good meeting space! The Monday Bible Study has been coming here for years now, and we have a TV set-up that I can move in and out of my office so that we can watch the videos.
That group is so dear to my heart. They are some of the best friends that I have.
We have had the young adults here, off and on, and we have also started hosting our St Patrick's small group.
I started another study of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, because I really wanted to go through it again, and now they come here on Friday nights.

There will be more, God willing.

This is really the mission of the family in the world, to build up the community and the Church, and I love that our home is able to share in that mission. It makes our home a space where the Lord is able to minister to His people. It is an honor.

What an immense Blessing!

Motivated Moms App

This is pretty doggone exciting!

The housekeeping program that I use, and that I suggest to my clients, is now in beta testing as a app!

I have been using it this week, and I love it!
Here is a link to get the app when it becomes available to everyone!
https://motivatedmoms.com/

It is working pretty smoothly, and there have been very few glitches.

The only thing that I would like to see changed, is for the things that I don't get done on the day that they are scheduled to move onto the list for the next day, but I know that is asking a lot, and heck, I can always just go back and check them off as I do them, whenever that happens.

I am also thinking about writing out the systems that I want to work through in my story as I write.
There are things that I need to write through, because that's the best way for me to process the process.  I can see the steps as I write them out.

Stay tune, I'll post as I go.

There Will be Joy

I have come to cherish the days when there is time and space to make my own decisions about my time and space.

The past few weeks have been so full!
All good stuff, of course, but it makes me feel rather ungrounded when I find myself gone for the larger part of each day.
I love being home, and I love doing what needs doing in my home.

I love feeding people, but I have not been feeding people very well these days. It seems like I am always just throwing something on the table without much forethought, and I don't like that.

Today I will plan a menu for the week before I shop. Because I have time!
I am getting the laundry caught up. I can hear the washer down there working away, and it is a nice sound.
I can wash the windows.
I can make a list of tasks that I want to finish, and check them off.

The day started with amazing prayer, and I am so grateful when the Lord chooses to speak deep into my heart, and I have the time to really take it in.

I spent some time thinking about the things that I have put on my own plate, and the things that other people have asked me to put there.
There's a lot, but when it's for Jesus it just goes so much better.

Doing the day of Nettie's program that I did, I was able to identify some of the things that I don't want.
I don't want to be focused on what people can do for me. I want to be focused on what I am called to do. If I am called to call, that is one thing, but building structures for myself, so that I can be bigger in the world, that's not where I want to put my energy.

I don't want to be preoccupied with gathering information that will not benefit my mission. There is so much that I want to read, and learn, and discover, but I want it to be only what I need for the journey. I have a lot. I have been given so much, and it's all Grace.
I have a very full backpack, this Frodo pack.

I discerned a little metaphor for myself on Wednesday.
I am a little like Frodo Baggins.
I carry something that can't be carried by anyone else. I have help, but only I can carry this particular treasure. It is mine to bear. The message (ring) is given, the journey is voluntary.
I must always stay smaller than the message, always give praise and all the Glory to the author, and stay humble, gentle, fearful, and willing.

We all have a treasure that only we can carry. It is an awesome, scary, beautiful, priceless treasure.
It is our journey, and we don't walk alone, but we can't give it to anyone else.
It is a Cross, and it is a gift.

So today I set out on the part of the path that I have to walk.
There may be Orcs or there may be Elves, but there will certainly be Joy.

A PHD in Love...

Why Women Love The Home But Not Being A Homemaker

While the return to the craft of domesticity can help a homemaker’s sense of fulfillment, ultimately undervaluing motherhood is the more persistent issue.

By Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Over the past decade, our culture has seen a resurgence of interest in the domestic arts. What was old seems new again.

Contemporary McMansions are shunned for old farmhouses or low-slung mid-century homes. Convenience food is something we buy sheepishly, opting instead to wear aprons while making simple, slow meals served on hand-thrown pottery. We knit, sew, quilt, and even quill. If it is a craft, it has probably made, or is about to make, a social comeback from prior relative obscurity.

What is interesting about this rise in the domestic arts is that it is not necessarily springing from an equal rise in our appreciation of homemaking. This can be interpreted in different ways. Maybe we are inadvertently seeking the comfort represented in caring for home, perhaps because that comfort was denied to us. Maybe it is just an acknowledgement that convenience has come with a cost.

Either way, we seem to like the trappings of what homemakers do, without the actual daily grind of making a home for others. Why? Some of this might be attributed to irrational social taboos against homemaking, but the answer is likely more complex.

How People Find Happiness

If we look to different metrics to understand how humans define happiness, a few patterns emerge. While lists vary, bestselling author and consultant Patrick Lencioni discusses three common elements to evaluate vocational happiness. Lencioni asks: 1) Am I respected and known in my job? 2) Do I know why my job matters? and 3) Am I progressing in my work, and is there a measure for this progress?

If the answer to any of these is no, an individual may feel disillusioned in his current role. What happens when we apply these questions to homemakers?

The first question of “Am I respected and known in my job?” is not a box that many homemakers would check. While there are exceptions and wonderful communities to be found in support of homemakers, one doesn’t have to look far to feel the chill that can come from the broader culture.

Even a quick trip to the neighborhood Trader Joe’s is revelatory. While the employees are always friendly, the customer base often is not. Sighs, eye rolls, and veiled remarks are all things a mom with a crew of little people may have to contend with in perhaps America’s smallest chain grocery store. Too often, wordlessly communicated is that the stay-at-home mom is in the way of the very important real-world worker’s day.

The other reality is that it is difficult to feel known in the often isolating work of motherhood. Our neighborhoods aren’t full of kids, there may be few other women home, and with families strewn across the country, a grandmother or aunt can no longer be counted on to offer a helping hand. Women getting together to can or quilt while their children play together outside is a rarity, to say the least. Most of us get our advice from YouTube or Martha Stewart instead of from a neighbor or close relative.

And what about the second question? Do mothers know their job is important? Not always. Radical feminism has long promulgated the idea touted by Germaine Greer that children are simply brought up—they will be no different if they have two parents or no parents, they just grow.

Of course, 50 years of collective research shows that Germaine was quite wrong, but the attitude has stuck. Without mincing words, Betty Friedan also took a hammer to mothering by explicitly stating that a life spent taking care of one’s children full time is a life wasted. Even today these lingering messages whisper to women that their job is not only unimportant, but a squandering of their time and gifts.

A Measurement of Progress From… Somewhere

As for the last criteria? Does a stay-at-home mom feel like she is progressing in some area, and does she have a way to measure that? Looking at trends in homemaking, one very real change has been the relative ease that our culture and economic status affords.

We don’t have to sew our own clothes, knit our own socks and sweaters, or grow our own food in our kitchen garden. We also don’t have to consult friends or family about canning and food preservation because we don’t actually have to preserve food for the winter. Even with the renewed interest in domestic arts, there is still a wide chasm between dabbling in making bone broth and actually needing to regularly darn someone’s socks.

Without the daily necessity of more skill and craft-based aspects of motherhood, today’s iteration of homemaking is largely dotted with very mundane and routine tasks—pulling together a quick meal and cleaning it up, washing and folding laundry, keeping the house clean, and driving children to various activities. But among these regular tasks, few among us would call them a “practice” as defined by philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre.

A practice is a work that requires honing a skill, learning new techniques, while growing in virtue as the work is performed. Think, for example, of the tradition of a master tailor, for whom boys would apprentice for many years, slowly learning the craft. In learning about fabric, precise cutting, and human physiology, they also learned the virtues of patience, attention, perseverance, and obedience all the while experiencing the joy of doing something with their hands and mind and achieving new benchmarks in their abilities.

For the woman who is task oriented and wants to have a sense that her work is important and meaningful, in homemaking today there can be very little to hang onto. No homemaker ever has gotten excited about her progress in driving skills because of the increased hours spent shuttling children. No homemaker ever has gotten excited about how deftly she can now sort whites from darks, and how quickly she can get wet clothing into a dryer. These kinds of activities are simply mindless and cannot constitute anything resembling a practice.

Seeking Validation and Satisfaction in Paid Work

University of Virginia sociologist Bradford Wilcox has discovered that the happiest women are those who are home with their children, but who have some kind of work that they do part time outside the home. This makes great sense given that for the modern homemaker her achievements at home are unknown, and her work grossly undervalued. These realities leave many restless and seeking vocational satisfaction elsewhere while still maintaining a significant connection to home life.

The modern homemaker’s achievements at home are unknown, and her work grossly undervalued.

The ennui of motherhood isn’t the only reason women work. Often financial need or a particular gift or calling make their own demands on a family, sometimes welcome and other times not. But much of the ambivalence women face in motherhood can be remedied with the support of a loving and attentive husband and a handful of supportive friends and neighbors. While the return to the craft of domesticity that has captured the broader culture can also help with homemaker’s sense of fulfillment, ultimately the undervaluing of motherhood is the more persistent issue.

To make a home is, in a way, the ultimate and most human “practice,” in that it is a life spent developing, not just a specific skill, but the very skill of being a human in full. In the face of its challenges, the homemaker who approaches it in such a purposeful way is working daily to develop generosity in herself and others, asking and discussing life’s big questions in small and unexpected moments, regularly prompted to see the world anew with eyes of wonder, being tested in patience with the intensity and effectiveness of a boot camp, learning how to be an advocate for another, and putting aside her girlish diffidence for which she no longer has the time nor the silliness.

Most importantly, she is getting a PhD in love, which for her had been an empty, abstract word without the dirty, messy, loud, itchy particularities of this life in close quarters. And she is consoled and astounded, time and again, with the beauty, purpose, and enduring consequence of building lives through the universal language of home.

Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering are the co-authors of "Theology of Home: Finding the Eternal in the Everyday" (TAN Books, September 2019) and the editors of the women's online magazine, Photo Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay

Making it Home

I am home again after a wonderful trip to visit some of my most favorite people!
I spent ten days with Laura and her crew and it was wonderful!
I love going to the homes of my girls. Each one has a different flavor, but they both have such a confident grasp on what they love.
Laura has a strong sense of what goes together and how to make a statement with color and placement of the things around the house. She is very well organized and finds ways to make the running of a very busy home quite painless. Her kids are all a part of the process, pitching in and participating and very willing for the most part!
Nina has such a love for her space and her personality shines through in the rooms and the way that she loves to do projects and make it her very own.
The art of homemaking is not just how to keep it together, but also how to live in the home, how to be welcoming and make all who spend time there feel relaxed and comfortable.
That is not an easy balance to maintain.
I don't do it very consistantly, but I think both Laura and Nina pull it off very well.
I do love my home and I enjoy everything about the daily keeping and the projects that we do on it.
I think I probably enjoy doing home projects more than anything else that we could put our money toward, which is tough for Tim, because he has to do all of them!

While I was in Texas, Laura had all the floors in the downstairs replaced and we painted her bedroom. the new floors look so nice, and it is such an improvement as far as the work in keeping them up. Carpet is less than ideal with an active family.
I love the floors in our house and I think we have a good balance.
Tim has done a wonderful job of putting them down, and so far they are lasting forever!
We will probably do our bedroom as our next project, and the floor will be done because it is the old damaged wood floor.
I have found some amazing new products that are available at the local project stores.
Laura will be here in June and I hope to get her input on the walls and decor.

I am so glad to have this place where we have created our home.
It is truly "us" and it gets a little better every day.
The art of making it the home that we love and cherish is one that I still try to develop and improve.
I am not much of an artist in the classical sense, but in the sense of expressing who I am and what I treasure, I am fully devoted to the art of Homemaking.

The Glory of Spring!

Finally! We are in the season of sun and flowers, gentle mornings and soft evenings.
The chill is letting go, and it is not risky to leave the jacket at home.

The window units went in last night, and the deck furniture has come out of the attic.
The mornings are lighter and the days are longer.

It is so tempting to leave everything undone in the house, as the yard is calling.
I love this time of transition. The memory of the cold is still fresh, and it is so easy to appreciate the changes. The green in the trees is that bright, new green, and the leaves fill in all the spaces around the yard, making it our lovely private sanctuary.

Tonight there will be grilled chicken and we may even eat out on the deck.
Tomorrow there will be rain, but even that is welcome, because it brings the growing things out and it isn't freezing now.
The seed in the lawn needs the rain.
It is amazing how the grass that looked so sad and pathetic two weeks ago is growing and filling in!
In early spring it always seems defeated, and then the warmer weather brings it out and it seems like it needs to be mowed twice a week!

What flowers will I plant? What to put in the "vegetable" bed?
The rhubarb is growing like crazy, and some of the herbs made it through the winter.
Certainly there will be some Basil, and the marigolds will have to be there keeping the deer at bay.
Maybe a tomato plant, and possibly some chives.
It is so exciting!

For now it is just making plans, maybe Friday I will buy some plants and get them in.
The possibilities make it hard to commit!

None of my Business

So I have made an important discovery over the past few months.
Not that I am surprised, because I have suspected it for a long time.

What I have discovered over the past year and eight months is that I am not a business person.
I have not had any illusions that I would finally start enjoying this process. I have known from the beginning that it was just a necessary part of the work that I want to do.

What really stinks is that I love the work I do, and if there was a place that I could do it, without having to jump through the business hoops, I would be so happy.

The business hasn't grown on me. I haven't enjoyed watching it develop, mainly because I have done very little to develop it. I just can't get excited about it.
It isn't something that I feel attached to, it's just a formality so that I can do the work.
I guess this is just not the field for me, if the only way that I can be employed is to employ myself.

I am really good at organizing, I am a great teacher, and I am focused and motivated. I have good ideas and I can usually find the resources to bring them to fruition.
So I really don't believe that it is a lack of motivation or something that I could resolve with better tools or more education.
It isn't even lack of interest. It is really just a distaste for the things that are required to run a small business.
I hate dealing with money and having to worry about taxes. I find all that very stressful.
I detest any sort of marketing. It makes no sense, since people can't hire you unless they can find you. I don't think I am all that great with technology any more. I used to love new tools and finding better ways to do things, but I feel like I am falling behind.

I know that this sounds whiney.
There is nothing that I would like more than to find myself in a position of joyful SEO, and social networking. But it's not going to happen. And I am not getting much help in that department from God. When I pray, He is pointing me in lots of directions, but none of them seems to be that I should embrace business with more passion.
I have been given so many gifts, and I have lots of things that I know that He wants me to do. All of them are worthy, but none of them are paying. I think, actually, that the less money I make, the more that I get "paid".

There are a lot of productive years between now and the end of my life.
The guys are all doing well, and moving in the direction of independence.
Now is the time for me to find what I will be doing with those years. I have a lot of time invested in the occupation of Organizing.  I have been doing this for 12 years.
I thought it was what I would be doing for the next 10 at least. I am not prepared to radically shift gears, but I am gradually working less, when I should be gearing up and working more.
I am actually working more in the different areas of ministry, both at the parish, and in my groups.

I love that work too.
I am good at that work, also, and it keeps me close to the heart of Jesus.
There are so many good people and it is bringing something important to life.
I just feel like I should also be contributing financially.

I don't know. More Prayer. More time with Jesus in the Eucharist.
There is obviously something that he wants of me. I just need a more open heart to hear it.

Writing

Writing has become a more important part of my life these days.
I am finding myself going deeper into reading and spending a lot more time writing.
I have begun journaling in a couple of ways, and I had been doing 750words.com on that site.
I have deleted that account, but I am still committed to writing everyday, and making it public here on either this blog or "Jen's Pen".
There is a lot that happens when I write and I don't want to miss the benefits. They say that the best way to make things happen is to write them down. I am committed to being open to what God is asking me to do, and not jumping the gun. For the longest time I have been acting on what seems to be the promptings of the Holy Spirit, but as I put what I think He is saying into action, I get lost in my own ideas and motivations. I jump off from what I think He is saying and find myself in places that I don't think that He intended for me to go. I end up seeking things for the wrong reasons.
Anyway, writing has become a way to hear Him. It slows me down, gives me a place to put the thoughts that are in my heart, and keeps me more in the moment, reminding me to wait on Him.
Journaling in my prayer journal, writing down the thoughts that come across in the homily, or letting a story take shape in the light of Truth, are all ways that writing has helped to bring my thoughts into a deeper focus.
The 750 words approach was very helpful in getting me writing everyday, but the pressure to get it all out in a specific amount of time and without really letting my thoughts deepen, made it start to seem pretty pointless, not to mention that there is something very self-focused about writing in a private forum. For me, it was just too much dwelling on my own thoughts. Too much navel gazing. Having the things that I write out in a public forum, although I really don't know if anyone even knows this blog exists, so it's not really very "public", keeps me writing with a more responsible mental purpose.
What does all this mean?
I am waiting on that too.
What is the purpose in all of what has been happening in this life over the past few months?
I know that the world of my family and my home are key in where God is taking me.
I have been given such a gift, and to have some answers for what the meaning of Home and family really is in this world is a huge part of where I think I am going.
It is so exciting but it's "butterflies in your belly" exciting.
What does my home and family mean in the world?
Where does the profound teaching of Theology of the Body come into play in all of this?
What does God intend for the combination of experiences and this walk that He has put me on?
My life before, our journey, this life in a marriage as God intended, TOB and a new understanding of what that really means, the experience that I have in coaching and now health and fitness, and how that comes together with TOB.
It just fills me with anticipation and so much excitement, but I have to be patient and not go running away with my own ideas.
What might this all mean? Where might it be headed? I have no clue, maybe nowhere, but if He wants to pull it all together, I am all ears.
I will just keep working on my story. I can allow my thoughts to fly, and I can let that be a place where I pull it together, even if I never share it.
Writing my way to His plan. Writing the story of a life that begins to make sense as the Truth becomes clearer.
Maybe that's where I am going and I just have to let my fingers do the walking.
Sara will find her answers, even if I never find mine.

As Real As It Gets

So much to do and so much to think. What would life be like if there weren't so many random things pulling at us? Why do we say "yes" whenever we are asked whether we can do this or that?  Automatically, often without even thinking. The pause that we should take. The breath that we should take while we think about what we have on our plate....

This wasn't a problem when people lived back on the farm. There was no question about what people were going to do with their day. They didn't use an alarm. They got up when it got light, and they got outside to get the water, milk the cows, and feed the other animals. No question how you are going to spend your time when you have a barnful of livestock waiting to be taken care of. Breakfast would happen after everyone had already be at the day for a couple of hours. There was no email or Instagram to distract anyone. No one grabbed their phone to text while they were waiting for the water to fill the stock tank. They would look out across the fields and think, about life, about the way the farm was running, about the family. They had a story that they were creating day by day, they didn't need "This is Us" or "The Voice". 

The kids went outside to do the tasks that were appropriate for their ages. The little ones would do the weeding, carry in the laundry, and gather the eggs. It was a proud moment when a child was given a job that really needed doing. It meant that they were helping the family to work better. 

The older ones would help with the cooking, sewing, fencing, feeding the animals, and on and on it went as they grew up. By the time they were 14 or so, they had spent their time becoming capable. Not in ways that were potentially going to pay off "someday", but in real, solid, material things that would be part of the living of life. 

Moms didn't go to town to volunteer, they didn't go find "something to do" when the kids went off to school. They didn't take the kids from one "enriching" experience to another. They raised their children. 

No one was going to teach them. Mom taught them.

Taught them to read, what ever was available. Usually the Bible. Taught them around the cooking, the sewing, the planting, the feeding, and the many, many other things that were a part of the rythym of the days and the seasons. Teaching that was just part of the way the world worked, so it made sense. You have to learn to read and write. Who is going to figure out what needs to be ordered from the seed catalog? Who is going to find the best way to sell the things that had been growing all year? Who is going to find out what the lambs need to cure hoof rot? You have to learn to do the math that will keep you from being cheated, that will help you figure out how much seed corn to buy so that you can plant next year. All the lessons were things that could be immediately applied, not things that were waiting for "someday" when you might need them, like Algebra.

Dads didn't have mid-life crises, because a whole lot of them didn't live to mid-life, and if you did live to mid life your whole world was in the farm and in all of what you had built. You had a place to be and things that couldn't be left while you tried to figure out who you were. You were a farmer, for better or for worse, and you had better sit on that land and make it something that you could hand down to your sons. So there wasn't golf, or poker, or yoga, or pornography, at least for most of them. There was work. Exhausting, backbreaking, heart-breaking, satisfying work. Building, growing, clearing, plowing, helping God with the creating. That kind of work makes you get up early, keeps your mind engaged all day, and puts you to sleep when the sun goes down. That kind of work makes a family a part of each other and a part of the land. That kind of life is what makes people say that the land will always be a part of them. There is something elemental about saying "yes" to a life on the land. It isn't for everyone, but it is a "yes" to being as real as it gets.

It's Your Body, Give it Wings

Nobody likes a person who tells them that in order to feel good, in order to be the best version of themselves, they have to treat their body the right way.
Nobody wants to hear it, and nobody wants to do it. But then, if for some reason they have to do it, they often discover in that new physical reality a person that they are much happier being.

In the midst of self-destructive or self-neglectful lifestyles there will almost always be a time when for whatever reason, a doctor's visit, a health crisis, a comment from someone, there is a moment when we are shown what we are doing to ourselves. We look at ourselves with the eyes of another person, and we realize that our habits are taking us down a road that we do not want to be on.
A body full of aches and pains. Unable to sleep, unable to stay awake during the day.
A body that can't do what we want, can't take us where we want to go.
It refuses to go up the stairs without a fight. It gives us trouble when we want to enjoy a vacation, or be present to those we love, especially children.
It doesn't let us take care of the house or get out and work in the garden.
Left to our habits and our bad choices, we will eventually find ourselves in a prison of pain, inflexibility, exhaustion, and immobility.
Seriously. It is the way of the modern world. Go to Walmart and look at the number of scooter-carts.
But at some point there will be a moment when we are offered the choice to do something about it.
We will either want to, because we want our bodies to do more for us, or we will have to, because we get to the point that if we don't make some drastic changes we will do irreparable damage.
This may be the beginning of a whole new life.

There are facts that are undeniable.
Too many calories without enough energy expended turns fuel into fat.
The wrong kinds of calories turn into fat even faster.
The fuel that we put in creates the energy for the machine and some kinds of fuel are better than others. Try putting diesel in your sedan sometime. It's not meant to run on that.

We should value these miracles that are our bodies. We should treat them better than we would the most expensive and amazing car. We should look to them not as something that we have to drag through life, that we complain about, but a part of ourselves that allows us to express who we are.
Our bodies are given to us as part of the beautiful package that we are. We should give them what they need so that they can help us to be the best version of ourselves.
Look at your body. Feel your body. Use your body.
If it isn't what you want it to be, take a step in that direction. Just one.
Do it today, and then, try to do it again tomorrow. Make it a commitment for a week.
It can be as simple as drinking more water, or giving up soda.
Take a walk every day, even if it's just to the end of the block.
Cut out the things that you know aren't good for you. Add in something that is, bit by bit.
If it's hard to exercise, just do a stretching regimen. Love how it feels when you are done.
Just replace one thing with something else.

You are your body, all of it. Make peace with it, nurture it, and you can start using it to enjoy this beautiful world that God put here for you!