- Feb 5, 2002
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Question: What is there that is even crunchier than all the weedlessly-homesteading, perfect-child-rearing, organic-handspun-alpaca-wool-wearing influencers on social media?
Answer: A freshly-picked apple.
You know, sometimes when mere mortals like yours truly read on the internet about homesteading, homeschooling, domestic economies, and spinning straw into gold, we can feel a little discouraged and overwhelmed. Does powdery mildew just not come for influencers’ gardens? Do frozen corn dogs truly never pass influencers’ children’s lips?
Is the only way to lead a good life really to be so darn picturesque?
Well, of course not. And we should push back against this fear of not being good enough, because doing everything according some elusive standard is really not the point of seeking to ground ourselves in the ways of “hearth” and “field,” is it? The point is to draw closer to all that is good, to prune ourselves along with our gardens (if we have a garden), and to live in steady connection with ourselves, our families, our God, and our neighbors. It is not to teeter between perfection and utter failure, but rather, to grow.
You don’t have to have forty acres and wear only linen and wool in order to benefit from the goodness of our natural world. Please don’t be put off by a sense of immoveable standards out there on the internet (or elsewhere). The good life is for apartment-dwellers, public-school-goers, and unmarried female CEO’s just as much as it is for the very “crunchiest” influencers. Whether you have acreage or only yardage, whether you belong to a large family or a small one, and whether or not you support your family by digging in the dirt, you can still do things to connect yourself to the land and your cultural roots in good food and conviviality.
Continued below.
Answer: A freshly-picked apple.
You know, sometimes when mere mortals like yours truly read on the internet about homesteading, homeschooling, domestic economies, and spinning straw into gold, we can feel a little discouraged and overwhelmed. Does powdery mildew just not come for influencers’ gardens? Do frozen corn dogs truly never pass influencers’ children’s lips?
Is the only way to lead a good life really to be so darn picturesque?
Well, of course not. And we should push back against this fear of not being good enough, because doing everything according some elusive standard is really not the point of seeking to ground ourselves in the ways of “hearth” and “field,” is it? The point is to draw closer to all that is good, to prune ourselves along with our gardens (if we have a garden), and to live in steady connection with ourselves, our families, our God, and our neighbors. It is not to teeter between perfection and utter failure, but rather, to grow.
You don’t have to have forty acres and wear only linen and wool in order to benefit from the goodness of our natural world. Please don’t be put off by a sense of immoveable standards out there on the internet (or elsewhere). The good life is for apartment-dwellers, public-school-goers, and unmarried female CEO’s just as much as it is for the very “crunchiest” influencers. Whether you have acreage or only yardage, whether you belong to a large family or a small one, and whether or not you support your family by digging in the dirt, you can still do things to connect yourself to the land and your cultural roots in good food and conviviality.
Continued below.
