Are you waiting?

Are you waiting?  Are you dreaming of that day to come when you own a farmhouse on a piece of humble land?  Do you have an itch for the morning when you will be able to wake up and gaze out over your kitchen sink to see the glistening watercolor sunrise over your flourishing garden, grazing animals and buzzing pollinators, all the while you’re sipping on an ethically sourced espresso?  If you do, I am right there with you!  And maybe those aren’t your specific farm dreams, but you get the point.  This journey isn’t all about ending up in the exact same place as our friends, mentors or role models.  But isn’t it tempting sometimes to want to be where these sweet people are at?  

I don’t know about you, but I find myself here more often than I’d like to admit.  There are times when I have caught myself in the middle of a three hour long youtube-athon, jotting mental notes of “necessary” land acreage or the exact cast iron skillet I will “need” to upgrade my kitchen tools arsenal.  There is nothing wrong with immersing yourself in the acquiring of knowledge for a specific lifestyle, especially if you’re unsure if it’s the right lifestyle for you, but obsessing and yearning for things that are not feasible to obtain in this season is really just wasting precious time and mental energy.  Time that we could be using to grow and learn what is truly purposeful.  But, do you even know where to start?  

When I first heard of the whole slow food movement I was so eager to start that I dove head first into obsessive research.  I watched every documentary on netflix I could find.  I spent days and days watching youtube videos. I even picked up books on gardening and farming.  But even with all the research I was doing I didn’t feel like I was even scratching the surface of what I was dreaming of living out.  I felt this way because I didn’t feel like I was accomplishing enough.  I thought that to eventually be a full blown homesteader, farmer, cottage gardener (whatever you wanna call it) I needed to be caring for an array of animals, sowing all of my own clothes for my family, and making every meal solely from food we grow in our backyard.  I couldn’t do any of this and I really didn’t feel purposeful. 

But I’m here to share some real honest truths that many are missing out on.

 Guys, you don’t have to be doing those specific things to be living out purpose!  If anything, you don’t need to do any of those things.  

This journey is not about accomplishing everything all at once.  This is a JOURNEY, not a destination.  To tell you the truth, you may never arrive either….  For some, that may have been really hard to hear. (I say this not to discourage you in any way, so hang with me).  The reason I say this is to start you off on the right foot!  If you start this adventure with a full head of expectations, you will be sorely disappointed. I’m sure if you asked any one of your role models if they have ever been disappointed through this process, most (if being honest with themselves) would say yes.  Not because their dreams never came to be, but that it didn’t go how they thought it would.  Their pepper seeds didn’t germinate, their cloth diapers needed a strip or they burned dinner on the stove and had to get takeout….. “ahem” speaking from experience!  So, if we start without any expectations we can help guard our hearts for the future.  

But this doesn’t answer the burning question we all have, that being:  With no expectations in mind, can I really start a homestead without any money?  The answer to this question is complicated.  In one sense, yes, you very well can, if your idea of homesteading is simply changing what you consume and the effort you put forth to develop more sustainable practices.  But if any of you are like me, that’s not our end goal.  When I think of homesteading I think of my homesteading dream.  The sweet little home on a humble piece of land filled with plants and animals.  So with a more specific goal in mind, the true answer to this question is, no.  Most of us don’t have the kind of finances needed to buy that dream in this season of life.  We are wanting much much more than a couple of small changes in the long run.  We are wanting a COMPLETE lifestyle reform.  We are wanting the kind of change that doesn’t just benefit ourselves, but cultivates a restorative view of life that will pass down to the future generations.   Though I don’t believe that homesteading is the ultimate fulfillment in life, I do see it as a way we can steward the land we have been given and use it to pour out love for others in our communities.  I believe homesteading is a conviction to be better stewards of the world we currently live in by putting one foot in front of the other towards making slow, but BIG change. We can’t do it all at once.  We won’t be able to end hyperconsumerism, child sweatshops, or the mega world conglomerates managing our agriculture all in one night.  What we can do is pull out straws. 

You’re probably thinking to yourself  “what”? “What could you possibly mean by that”….?  Lol  Well, have you ever heard of the kids game KerPlunk?  That little game where this tube has tons of  little straws passing through the center holding up a handful of marbles, and on every turn someone gets to pick a straw to pull out.  The thing is, in this game you don’t want to be the person who pulls out the straw that lets all the marbles loose.  For us, it’s the exact opposite!  Now I’m NOT saying go out and burn unethical business down or that you should never eat any non-organic food again.  Violence and/or starving yourself won’t make any lasting change.  Big change happens slowly by changing what we invest in over time.  I know the phrase “over time” feels overwhelming and I completely understand!!!  Something my mom always said to me when I was little and very overwhelmed was; “To eat an elephant, you must take one bite at a time”.  This helped me so much with accepting where I was and motivating me to break the ice in what was ahead of me. We have purpose in making slow changes in our day to day life!  You can start the slow change now…

even while you’re waiting.  

It’s not wrong to want a cute little farm house, a piece of humble land, and some animals to care for.  But we don’t want to wait around until we arrive at our dream to start cultivating a purposeful life.  Together we can slowly make big changes by the slow actions we take each and every day.  Are you ready to make lasting changes?  Come and be a part of cultivating a beautifully purposeful life in the waiting! 🙂