My grandfather was a dairy farmer and my grandmother grew up
on a farm, picking cotton. While I have no interest cotton, I do find myself
fantasizing about homemade jam, chopping wood and harvesting my first crop. I
can’t drop out of life, buy a cabin and live like it’s 1802, so I’m devising a
plan for a Suburban Utopia. A plan that
will hopefully bring us a little closer to where we ultimately wanna be. It looks
something like this:
1.
Clear out the flower bed in the backyard . Level
the ground. Build planter boxes. Begin our own veggie/herb garden. (this will
also include building some kind of fence to keep our doggie children from
pigging out on our hard work before we can)
2.
Purchase some sort of cargo trailer for our
bikes so that when we do need to go to the grocery store, we can save gas (less
pollution!), get some exercise, and enjoy the time together doing things the
semi-old school way.
3.
Compost!
4.
Create pleasant conversation areas in both our
front and backyards. Luckily this is the one thing we’ve already started.
5.
Configure our one car garage into a homey
woodshop that’s both functional and inviting.
6.
Inside of the house although things are pretty
awesome as they are, I wanna make our craft/work room more functional; continue
to turn our bedroom into a romantic and relaxing retreat; and work on over all
organization.
7.
Recycle!
8.
I’m learning to cook so another must-have would
be a working recipe book of tasty and healthy meals made from whole,
unprocessed foods.
9.
Let’s face it. Our dog children are wild beasts.
They do what they want, when they want…god love them. I have this idyllic
picture in my head of hiking with the dogs right by my side…off leash. Right now that ain’t happenin…so first things
first – time to buy head collars and “master the walk” as Cesar Millan says.
10. A clothesline for the back yard to save costly
energy and use our own energy instead
11. I
need a place to go to meditate. So I want to build a little zen area indoors
and outdoors
12. Look into the cost of installing a woodburning
stove. Just for the hell of it.
As you can see I’ve got enough to keep both Leah and myself
busy for the foreseeable future. And since Leah works full time and goes to
school, we’ll need to proceed at a snail’s pace. That’s ok with me. Eckhart
Tolle, one of my favorite spiritual teachers bases his teachings around staying
in the moment, the “NOW”. It’s fine to plan for the future but the final result
of your plans should not be more important than the process you take to get
there. Otherwise you’ll be living for the future and missing the present
moment. I absolutely agree with him and I’m absolutely looking forward to the
process. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about Eckhart soon. I have lots to
share. Until then - m
(see pics of undisciplined dog children above)
