Here we are in a new year with the old fading away and a new life waiting for us with each new day. Oh great. I guess the pressure’s on!
2011 was a crazy year. Full of change, increase and adventure. However, through it all, I fear we lost something. I don’t regret any of our decisions but I am missing a lot about our old life. It was hard, but it was full of character building and improvement. I tilled ground that was hard. I’m not being metaphorical here. It REALLY was hard. We lived on some of the most cement-like clay you ever saw. I tilled it over and over again until it was nice black earth. But then it rained over and over and soon it was too wet and hard to plant in and it grew over. We tried growing our own food in another garden we built. We added what was sold to us as top soil. (But it really wasn’t) And did have a few nice salads throughout the summer. I tried building raised beds which also turned out to be a disaster. The bright side was our “livestock”. We started out with two pairs of rabbits. One set were pets and the other set were meet rabbits. We called ourselves “Hare Producers” and talked frequently about our “two head of hare”. We later added chickens, ducks, turtles, puppies… Oh what fun to watch these animals grow. The kids loved it. I’ll never forget the face on my son when he found the first egg. My eyes are stinging right now just typing about it.
All of this was in 2010.
Well, then we moved back to the city. For more reasons than can be listed here. You would get bored before you got to the end of it! I started a new job, Kelly had a baby and all of a sudden we were in a new house without having sold the old! Life almost got out of hand in a whirl wind of fear, excitement and OH MY WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT!!!! Especially when you add in the six children factor with one turning eighteen and figuring out her role in the family/world.
Fast forward to 2012. Its here. Now things seem to be levelling out. We are starting more big projects and looking for ways to encourage faith and hope in our kids. But what is that going to look like and we need to have that faith and hope first before we can give it away. Shoot. I guess its time to pull up the boot straps and get serious. Life can’t fly by any more. I have to grab hold of it and reign it in. When I was a dishwasher at a local restaurant I was in an argument with a co-worker. I was fifteen, he was eighteen. My response to his comment about my attitude was that I was “riding the wave”. He responded with words I will never forget. He said, “I am riding the wave. You’re doin’ nothing but sitting in the sand!”
Where are you today? Are you out on the sea, riding the waves and going in the right direction? Or are you like I was. Sitting on the sand, waiting for the direction to get washed up onto the beach…