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)