contentment at home

There was a column in a periodical I subscribed to years ago (no longer in print) that was called What is in Your Hand?  Instead of planning for future projects which necessitated more purchases it gave innovative ideas for what might already lay beneath your nose. It helped me to look around before looking at the store.  It also helped me to see the abundance that was already mine.  

It was during that time that I wrote an article or two for a homesteading newsletter.  Newsletter - like typed in a farmhouse kitchen and stapled and mailed. : )  It was not my farmhouse though.  I sent my contribution from a tiny duplex on a military base.  The gist of those articles was about doing what you could where you were.  I could not harvest potatoes but I could bake a loaf of bread.  Milking a cow was out of the question but hanging cloth diapers on the line was not.  There were no chickens from which to gather eggs but there were sprouts in the windowsill.  

Made From Scratch encourages people to think in these terms. It is motivational for those who long for the farm but look out their windows across rooftops.  I think the larger message applies to all of us, wherever we live.  Grow where you are planted - literally and figuratively.  Every little step towards intentional living has the potential to bring meaning and satisfaction to our days.  We are not left with only our dreams of a someday house but instead have endless opportunities to be more self sufficient and hands on today. There is a reason we woke up where we did. Surely we are exactly where God wants us to be today.  With that truth in mind, we can find our happiness right here at home and 'dance with it':

"I think the real trick to finding that sense of satisfaction is to realize you don’t need much to attain it. A window-box salad garden and a mandolin hanging on the back of the door can be all the freedom you need. If it isn’t everything you want for the future, let it be enough for tonight. Living the way you want has nothing to do with how much land you have or how much you can afford to spend on a new house. It has to do with the way you choose to live every day and how content you are with what you have.

If a few things on your plate every season came from the work of your own hands, you are creating food for your body, and that is enough. If your landlord can be sweet-talked into some small backyard projects, go for it with gusto. If you rode your bike to work, trained your dog to pack, or just baked a loaf of bread, let it be enough. Accepting where you are today — and working toward what’s ahead — is the best you can do. Maybe your gardens and coops will outgrow mine, and before you know it you’ll be trading in your Audi for a pickup. But the starting point is to take control of what you can and smile with how things are. Find your own happiness and dance with it."   - Jenna  Woganich,  Made From Scratch  excerpted here

baking that loaf with the little ones...

Comments

[Marie]

This is a great post, thank you. My word for the year is contentment and this spoke to it well! And I haven't had a chance to say that I'm so glad you're back writing!

[Amber]

Beautiful :)

[Meredith from Merchant Ships]

Yippee! My library has a copy!

Thank you for the recommendation and for the encouragement to do what we can, where we are.

[Rebecca]

Thank you, thank you. I have missed this! Wonderful post.

[Susan L]

Yay, I finally, I got this page to load! Now to see if I can make this comment go through (I keep getting error messages). I want to say that I love this post-- the whole spirit and text of it. I will definitely, one way or another, get my hands on that book. Your words, too, are so good and so on the mark, Kim. Thank you.