This morning, there was frost on the fields where we plan to move the chickens this week, and fog filled the valley for the first time in some months. And acorns are raining down from our White Oak trees as Fall begins to set in here at the farm.
The acorns are really something this year, much like the apples. It was a bumper crop year for both. Now it might sound strange, but I am pretty darn excited about these acorns that pave the driveway, the backyard, and the woodlot next to the house.
For the past year, I have been working in earnest to develop a new relationship with failure. In fact, being willing to try new things and fail might be the greatest lesson I carried away from my stint in the Waldorf Teacher Training Eugene program this past year.
Last night, while we were scooping homemade wild blackberry preserves into the goat's milk yogurt I made for the first time, Ian said “Too bad you didn’t milk the goats, too, Mama. Then you could really say that you made this desert.”
If there has been a message I have been getting from Life lately, it has been to see my own life more as a pilgrimage, a holy journey, and less like a race to some goal or destination.
It is harvest time in Oregon, and I am nearly frantic with the desire to capture as much of nature's bounty as I can.
On Ian's first day of kindergarten, he looked at me defiantly, crossed his arms, and said, "I am NOT going to kindergarten!"
"Why not?" I asked, genuinely surprised. This was the first I'd heard of his opposition to attending school.
"Because if I go to kindergarten, I'll have to sit all day. If I sit all day, I'll have to get a job where I sit all day."
So here I begin, with a reflection on beginnings. Just over a year ago, my family and I moved to Eugene, Oregon, from Austin, Texas. There were many reasons for this move--proximity to my parents, the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, the ability to grow food--but for me, this new beginning was also rooted in the pio pios.
My intention in writing this blog is to cook up some "soul food"--stories to challenge, nourish, and strengthen the soul--as we navigate some choppy waters in a world in the midst of profound change. This is not a DIY homesteading blog, or a blog dedicated to naming or even solving what it sees as the problems of the world. Others do that.
