Worlds Colliding

Two worlds collided last night.

Daniel came home and excitedly told me of the PT competition they had at 3 in the afternoon. 10 tickets were at stake. The top 5 people to finish the competition in the company would each receive 2 tickets to the Kenney Chesney, Eric Church concert in Seattle on Saturday night. I didnt think he had won, the way he was telling me, without any hint of enthusiasm in his voice. But then he opened his journal and out fell 2 tickets. "I won the competition" he said.

Of course he did that stud of a husband I have! And so now in our possession, two tickets to an amazing concert... The type of ticket we wouldn't dare buy for ourselves.

But the thing is: we have been planning for the last few weeks that on Saturday June 1st, we would pick up the next two members of our homestead: two Nubian goats. The whole of Saturday morning will be spent driving to get them, getting the Milking and Goating 101 tutorial, and then introducing them to their new home. So time would be short that day and then would we just leave them for the rest of the day? And who would milk Lillibelle for the first time in her new home?

So there it was. The collision of two worlds. Would we choose to go to this concert, a free big-time concert that the Soldier won for us? Or would we choose to stay at home, welcoming and comforting the two new goats and spending an evening on the couch for movie date night, sharing the first of glasses of fresh goats milk from our homestead?

What would you have chosen?

Worlds were colliding but thankfully Daniel and I were united and now the tickets belong to a soldier and his young wife, the soldier that Daniel said ran his heart out but came in sixth place and had no tickets to show for his efforts. The soldier who stuttered as he tried to tell Daniel his thanks.

And so, now our commitment has truly grown, for goats are no easy animal to add to the homestead, with more fencing and more food and milking every morning and evening. And our commitment to this lifestyle has grown as well as the simple rhythms and ebbs and flows of this homesteading lifestyle truly become our own. We would choose nothing else than this space and these ones The Lord has given to us to care for and to grow.

Perhaps this might be a good time to tell why? Why the homesteading? Why the change? To begin simply, here is just a little list that I have kept in my journal during these first days:

• our desire is to live close to the earth and close to our food; to have an intimate relationship with each. To realize and to teach our children where food comes from... Not just from the store! It doesn't come packaged all nice and neat!

• to bring Him glory. In Psalm 8 it says that He has made us ruler over all, the animals and the land; our family wants to take part in that and do it well! To learn good stewardship, to bring Him honor by the way we treat our animals and respect the land. Each day we bring Him glory by interacting with Creation; every day we encounter It. Every day it brings praise from our lips!

• inevitably it makes us live close to death: we are raising our pigs to one day kill them for meat. But in living close to death, we also live close to life and resurrection! To see the provision, the nourishment, the redemption that comes from the lives of these animals... Given for us. In a way it is like His life, given for us... That we would be forever provided for, forever nourished, and forever redeemed.

• to enjoy the fruit of our labor: what fulfilling work we have done here together! And to be united in our work as a family is beautiful to be a part of. Daniel has had projects and I have too in the past, but never something together... Like working together in the garden or raising a fence together.. It is wonderful for our relationship.

• we long to return to the roots of simplicity: being excited to do and to make our own. To get away from processed and manufactured as much as we can and to enter into a local and community mindset. To gather friends and neighbors together to enjoy a harvest; to enjoy time with others... Quality time that is not dominated by stuff but rather amazed at nature and the rhythms and cycles He has ordained.

• I have always been a big "foodie" and I long to pursue whole foods for my family. To get back to what The Lord intended for food to be for us. Slow. Redemptive. Beautiful.


Beginnings. Beginning thoughts and dreams and desires for this season of life... And we know this sort of lifestyle will not be easy and we know we will more often than not find our world colliding with that which is around us. And that is ok. And we will continue onward, one simple step at a time.