The Big White Farmhouse

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Lately, I’ve been thinking about the concept of enemies.  I’ve been reading the current news stories about skirmishes and wars around the world.  I’ve also been reading about past conflicts in history and the lasting repercussions of war on a person’s psyche.  I’ve touched on the “culture wars” and the many factions that seem to keep society separated from each other.

I’m still wrestling with all of this information, but the overarching theme seems to be that we are encouraged to dehumanize people who disagree with us.  Social media and the news and even politicians push us to pick one side – you’re either Team A or Team B!  We’re pitted against each other, we look at people with hatred and disgust, we hold people to a standard higher than we do ourselves.  And sadly, the less you see the humanity of a person, the easier it is to devalue them or even wish their death.  What is happening to us as a society?  As a culture?

I believe that we are more than a sound bite, more than a 280-character tweet, more than one photo with a tiny caption. We are all people struggling to make sense of a complex world. Our backgrounds and experiences are vast and varied and we often come to different conclusions. That is okay! That is the human experience. You are not an automaton, you are not a machine, you don’t have to agree with everyone else!  We don’t have to be enemies. I’m fighting that societal pressure and I hope you will too.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ air-drying laundry (still!) as we continue to figure out the dryer issue.  I did purchase a second drying rack because the laundry piles were getting huge.

+ securing a dog boarder for our vacation!  We found her through Rover and had a meet-and-greet with her and the dogs.  She was so warm and welcoming and the dogs were right at home at her house – even Samson, who hates all strangers!  This is a huge weight lifted from my shoulders; I know they’ll be in great hands while we’re gone.

+ big, healthy hydrangea bushes!  Two years ago, I envisioned a line of hydrangeas around our front porch but could only afford the tiny, potted bareroots.  With patience comes great reward!  They are growing so well and are just gorgeous.

+ a young buck who seems to like hanging out in our backyard near the chicken run.  My youngest has named him Ezra.

+ selling ten unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: eight books, a DVD and a sweater.  After shipping and fees, I made $25.40.  I’m hitting a bit of a reselling wall (I’ve been listing steadily since late February!) so I took a bit of a break.  Even so, this was an exciting week because I’m getting so, so close to my financial goal.  Really hoping to cross that threshold soon!

Reading //

• this quote from Hum If You Don’t Know the Words by Bianca Marais:

It is not my place to speak in this setting.  Even if it was, there is no point in telling these men that I do not condone violence.  I have always believed, and still do, that violence begets more violence.  We are relics of a bygone era, those of us who support passive resistance.  The younger ones do not believe that the meek shall inherit the earth.  They insist the struggle must be an armed one because the only way to overthrow the white minority who keep the black majority in chains is with force.

But what quality of freedom will it be if it is won with blood?  And after that?  Once our rage has boiled and we have taken the life force of our enemies, have we not become the very people we have fought against, the ones who use violence against us?  If we ever taste victory, will our fighters lower their fists and live in peace or will they always be looking for the next conflict?  I despair that we are all becoming murderers, white and black alike, and that we will never be able to wipe this blood from our hands.  I pray that I am wrong. (p.96)

• Cocktails, Commitments, and Crafting Conversation from Ben Christenson at Hearth and Field // “Sherry Turkle describes the ‘rule of three’ in modern group socializing: so long as at least three people have their heads up, people feel license to check their phone and temporarily drop out. The resulting conversation is disjointed and shallow, limping along but unable to achieve any complexity or depth. It’s a ‘tragedy of the conversations,’ if you will. No one feels responsible, so everyone seeks their own pleasure while the shared conversation suffers.”  His ideas to encourage conversation without phones is great.
• The Contemplative Reader from Leigh Lowe at Memoria Press // “Contemplation is a bridge that leads from knowledge (comprehension) to wisdom and helps us use what we have learned to pursue virtue and avoid vice.”

New Additions to The List // 

• Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva by Rosemary Sullivan
• The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia by Orlando Figes

Watching/Listening //

• 8 Books You Should Read To Save Society – Before It’s Too Late… from Rob Pirie – The Cause //  I definitely want to participate in the close reading of this series.

Loving //

• this indoor plug-in fly trap // Started as a Home Depot impulse buy, but now I’m in love!  So helpful to combat the flies and other bugs that manage to get into this farmhouse.
• Sudoku // Trying to keep this brain of mine sharp.  You can even play online.
• “Learn all you can about various subjects because it can make for a very interesting life. It is like being on an everyday adventure that makes us want to know more.” // Wise advice from Grandma Donna.

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The decluttering adventure continues.  This week, I discovered a computer print-out from 2009!  The blog post described “Granny Day,” a day set aside each year to live life like Granny did.  At the end of the post, the author shared The Granny Creed and I’ll rewrite it here:

Make food for the soul with love in your hands; traverse daily to the well and draw from the living waters of creativity; from a generous heart give something away.  Rise early, stay late; call or write to one held dear, whether far or near.  Work until it’s done.  See to the needs of those around you, but never lose sight of your own.  Live each day with reverence and joy.

The timing of this little discovery was a little uncanny because the week took a very Granny-like turn!  Our dryer – only a year old – started making terrible grinding sounds so I was left to air-drying clothing all over the house while we tried to diagnose the problem.  I made a loaf of homemade bread in the bread machine almost every day.  I woke up with the sun, worked the garden and moved the animals before it got too hot.  It was a good, life-giving week.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ finishing up the Four Weeks to a More Organized Home challenge but forgetting to photograph the process!  Oh well.

+ returning to carnivore(ish) eating after a month of treats.  I enjoyed many of my old favorites, but I quickly went back to emotional/stress eating, my skin looks terrible (like I’m back in high school!) and my stomach issues have come back.  I know I can’t sustain any of those things, so back to the strict diet I go.

+ finding wild berries growing over our property fence.  I think they’re blackberries?

+ selling seven unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: a stylus pen, two books, a homeschool curriculum, and three pieces of clothing.  After shipping and fees, I made $65.50!

Reading //

• Grandmother’s Wisdom from Andrew Skabelund at Front Porch Republic
• Housework from Mary Townsend at The Hedgehog Review // “To clean the thing is to care for the thing; to clean well is neither giving it a flick that leaves the edges obscured in dirt, nor scrubbing the thing away into nothing. All of this work raises up the house out of the confusion of its strands back into one single thing, the bulwark, the thing that makes the rest possible, both leaving and coming back; the sort of place where you could consider resting your head. Housekeeping doesn’t just enable us to dwell; housekeeping is dwelling, and also it is thought.”
• Paper Routes: Working Hard & Humanely from Paul Schweigl at Hearth and Field // “I think what I am really hoping for is that the lad’s first job will teach him everything that my paper routes taught me. Work ought to help reveal the dignity of the worker, while enmeshing him in a community where he can learn to be a stronger but also more compassionate man.”

New Additions to The List // 

• Chasing the Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America’s Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt by Daniel Barbarisi
• American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers by Nancy Jo Sales

Loving //

• a new bread machine recipe // I omit the sugar and the kids don’t seem to notice.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

It’s been a few weeks, so I’m returning to this prompt again.  (Here’s part one and part two.)  Highly recommend the practice, especially if you’re going through a hard week or month or season.  Here’s my list:

Waking up with the sunrise.  A stack of packages sold during the long weekend.  An afternoon nap, just because.  A bluebird sitting on the fence post.  Listening to little boy giggles while they’re watching a movie.  Filling the trunk with donations.  Twenty new laying hens for the barnyard.  A drive alone with my husband, even if it was just to the dump, ha!

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ rest after a super busy, stressful, productive spring.  We made it!  I definitely needed a recovery week before the next big projects begin.

+ finding some unclaimed property after coming across this post from Six Figures Under.  It never hurts to check and we were thrilled to see our name on the list!

+ not paying full price for a high school literature curriculum.  I received a $10 coupon from Memoria Press last December and have held onto it ever since.  I wasn’t prepared to start buying next year’s books quite so early, but when I noticed that the coupon expired on 5/31 (and it was 5/31!) I snatched up the teacher and student guides.  Good deals seem to hard to come by these days, so this was exciting.

+ selling nine unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: six pieces of clothing, two books and a pair of slippers.  After shipping and fees, I made $60.26!

Reading //

• On The Degrading Effects of Life Online: How social media makes us worse people from Jon Haidt and Freya India at After Babel // Thought provoking.

And actually, I’m losing hope for people taking accountability because all this has accelerated so much and so fast that we can’t seem to see what it’s doing to us, let alone make better choices. Having a camera roll full of thousands of selfies is now completely normal. So is checking how many likes your tweet has while someone is talking to you. So is swiping through human beings like you’re on Amazon. Most of us do things like this sometimes and we feel that it’s weird, we know it’s a bit bleak, but more and more people don’t seem to even see a problem. They spend five hours a week taking selfies and don’t see it as vanity. They talk about people’s follower counts like it’s a measure of worth without a thought of what’s becoming of them. They are so obsessed with their digital reputation they can’t see how they are degrading their real life one for it. They can point to all the ways social media is killing their mental health but never their humility. And so many of us delude ourselves that these platforms are harmless and light-hearted, all while we can feel them destroying us on the inside. All while we are becoming steadily more self-absorbed, in ways that play out in our real relationships and I think eat away at us and our respect for ourselves. Maybe that funny feeling we get from social media isn’t always anxiety. Maybe sometimes that feeling is shame.

• A Nightmare Dressed Like a Daydream: Apple’s new ad and the limits of disembodied creativity from Nate Marshall at The Blue Scholar
• Beyond the practical: The value of “useless” knowledge from Daniel Esparza at Aleteia // “Philosophy is not a job skill, but a lens through which we can approach life’s big questions and appreciate the world around us with a deeper understanding. It’s a pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, a reflection of our inherent human curiosity and desire to understand.”

New Additions to The List // 

A commenter from the Apple post above shared a booklist for the Philosophy of Technology course he created.  Added a handful to my ever-growing list!

• The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
• The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America by Leo Marx
• Technology Matters: Questions to Live With by David E. Nye
• Erewhon by Samuel Butler

Watching/Listening //

• Why Mental Health Is Getting Worse – Jonathan Haidt from Chris Williamson // I’m anxious to read Jon Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness now.
• Nuclear War Expert: 72 Minutes To Wipe Out 60% Of Humans, In The Hands Of 1 Person! – Annie Jacobsen from The Diary of a CEO // Absolutely terrifying.  I’ve read one of Jacobsen’s books before (Operation Paperclip) and will definitely be reading this newest one.