When we were raising our 6 kids on an 80 x 100 lot in town, I day dreamed of being old fashioned and having ‘all the things’.
‘Things’ like a farm with a garden, cupboards brimming with beautifully preserved food in glass jars, a crafted clothesline, fresh bread rising under my Grandma’s old tea towel, a wood fire popping in the back ground and of course, an apron. I HAD to have an apron. You know, all the things that seemed would be fulfilling to an old fashioned heart.
I remember my Sister n Law, would always say…..”Kirsten, just start somewhere, you know, bloom where your planted.” But my all or nothing brain, couldn’t make sense of it.
Didn’t you have to have 25 acres to have all these things? We had feet, not acres!!!
So I spent more time complaining than I did creating, cultivating or conquering. I never thought it would happen for us, so why try?
Then on my 35th Birthday, my sweet husband built for me, my first ever clothesline……yep, smackdab in town.
The poor neighbors could see my endless loads of laundry drying in our little backyard. Cloth diapers, sheets, towels, and more mismatched socks than I could begin to count.
It was sorta embarrassing in the beginning. I definitely felt out of place at first.
But when I stopped worrying about what everyone else thought, and started listening to the birds chat, felt the warm sun on my skin and that wonderful cool summer breeze as I hung up sock number 942…………, it happened.
My menial task felt nearly therapeutic.
I loved hanging clothes on the line.
When I was alone, with cool grass beneath my feet and a basket of damp clothes in my arms, I could think.
I would pray. I would ponder. I would dream. I would beg God to please make a way somehow for us to have the space to live a slower, simpler and more sustainable life.
And one day, years later………..HE DID!
We didn’t deserve it then and still don’t deserve it now. But God graciously provided it, for us!
That clothesline was the catalyst to many new things and long before we ever had a hint that we may have something more.
There on that little lot in town I learned to water bath and pressure can, make candles, bake bread, mix our own seasonings, sew blankets and even made several of our own newborn cloth diapers.
We’d go to the u-pick farms and gather paper bags or plastic bowls of produce to bring home and preserve.
We’d make freezer jam, can peaches, green beans, applesauce, grape juice and shuck more corn on our back porch than was reasonable in late July.
And guess what, it felt SO good!
It wasn’t us growing the food. But it was still GOOD!
My point? My sister n law was absolutely right.
I needed to stop waiting, and JUST START.
So if you are someone with an old-fashioned heart, but feel stuck on your own little lot………..please just start. This can be such a precious time.
Even if it’s an herb on your window sill, a sunflower in you yard, or a dream on your paper……..start.
You will never see that bloom, if you don’t plant the seed.
I believe in you!!!!!! You were made for THIS!!!!!!!