Harvest

Today was a lovely Saturday. I got up this morning and was so worried about everything: studying, devotions, working out, folding clothes. You name it. I do that often. I get so antsy and stressed about everything I need to do that I often have a hard time relaxing. When something is not put in its place, when the floor has cat hair all over it, when I have 900 tasks on my to-do list I get my panties all in a wad and don’t un-wad them until everything is complete. I hate that I’m like that. I wish I could just relax and be sometimes. Isaac helps me in that arena, a lot, though. He “balances things out” if you will. If it weren’t for him telling me to constantly relax, I’d surely be gray-haired already. I hate that about myself!

Needless to say, I really am trying to worry less and relax more, sleep longer, enjoy going out even when I feel the house is a mess, and just generally try to not be concerned that things are a bit messy or if my daily regimen doesn’t go as planned. Because, what is that? It’s not life, it’s entrapment. I want to live!!

Anyway, having said all that I got up this morning, my two baskets of clothes still sitting in my bedroom, unfolded, and strolled on over to Pop and Nanny’s (i.e. Mom and Dad’s, incase you hadn’t guessed it). I was ticked that I didn’t make it to Old Town in time for the Christmas parade. I was pulling into town just as things had ended. Lots of people were still out and about, shopping and ice skating and such. My heart shed a little tear that I had not partaken.

I took a short two-mile jog at Pop and Nanny’s (my desired agenda included running with my camera up to the parade and snapping shots amidst the madness, but that clearly didn’t happen because I woke up too late). The hours that followed would be a sweet day filled with raking, leaf blowing, mowing, and prepping a new compost pile for our Spring garden. Yes, we are starting a garden! Hooray! I mentioned to Pop that I’d like to start one: grow some vegetables, herbs, fruits, etc. in his backyard. So Carrie suggested we start a compost pile, and that’s what we did.

Back when I was growing up, I hated raking or doing anything that involved yard work. I think that’s probably because it was a chore and I was more interested in playing with friends than doing any labor. I always wanted to finish things quickly and didn’t put any care or time into doing them. The only thing I sort of enjoyed was mowing the lawn, and only the Lord knows why. To this day, I still enjoy it. But no, yard work was not fun. It was soooo boooooring. Mindless, meaningless, huge, orange, leaf raking was how I felt about it, and the only thing that got me to do it was knowing that if I didn’t obey I would probably get a spanking or have to write sentences. OR get my light-up phone taken away. And I NEVER wanted any of those things to happen. So usually I would give in and rake or pick up the million sticks I was tasked with, in anger. LOL. Sorry Pop n’ Nan. Somehow, they muddled through my little bouts of terror and survived to read my writings about it.

But today, and for years now, I’ve begun to form a different outlook. Today was about family, about community, about helping one another and setting the stone for future home-making…in the comfort of my Pop n’ Nan’s backyard. I really don’t know if the seeds we plant will grow, or grow very well, but we will plant them. And if they do grow, I will love them and crop them and nurture them. I will stop by on my way home from work in the Spring time, till it, rip up weeds, water it, and eventually pick my own fruits and vegetables to cook with for my family. In this day and age we have so many things that are manufactured, boxed, shrink-wrapped, to-go, and picked right from a shelf. We don’t know how to create, to root, to develop on our own. I see so many and buy so much automated pre-packaged junk that I couldn’t even count. I don’t even know how to start or keep or harvest a garden, but this Winter, this Spring, and next Summer I will learn. And I’m hoping I learn to love it because I want it to become a developed mindset, a habitual regimen that I look forward to investing in each season. And through it, I want to develop survival and crafting skills. But more importantly, I want it to help me and my family keep life in simplicity. I want it to teach me to keep a bustling, working, society true to its core inception of understanding the farm and home life where life is not easy, but it’s easy. And where putting food on the table can be done in the comfort of one’s own dwelling and does not need to be bought at a store or in a ziplocked bag, pre-baked.

And I think this does not just apply to food and gardening, but I feel in my heart that we have lost life’s simplicities in all facets of our world: sewing, ironing, weaving, shucking, washing, methods of transportation, toys, forms of entertainment, etc. We need these innocent, simple pleasures back in our culture, ASAP. Come join us!!