Growing up around my grandparents farm was a joy during the warm months. Sitting in the kitchen, looking out of the screen door into the pastures filled with cattle. Feeling the Spring breeze push through that old screen and into my face. Everything was changing — there were cows bellowing, calves suckling, and tulips blooming. It was Springtime. Winter had finally ended and Summer was right around the corner. And there was a sense of freedom, as one season ended and a new one began….
Fast forwarding through life, farming was never on my to-do list as a teenager. I wanted to get married, have babies….but most of all, I just wanted to make it through school. Life was far too overwhelming for a girl my age — I was simple, but life was not. And the journey continued….
School ended. I graduated. Got married. Had a baby….
It was always “hurry up, life”, or, “I can’t wait until….”
But that season is over.
Life is simple again — not because it has grown that way, but because we’ve chosen that “way”. Now it’s, “just a little longer, sun” and “slow down, time…you’re stealing our babies”.
There’s always a journey. But it’s never a journey unless there’s change. And therefore life, in itself, is a journey of change — both willingly and unwillingly.
We were kids; and then we weren’t.
We were dating; and then we were married.
We were childless; and then we were parents.
We were selfish; and then we were selfless. We had more than ourselves to think about.
We yelled more than we spoke; and then we apologized and loved more than we yelled.
We were judgmental and rude; and then we were humble and learned to love the unlovable.
We were modern and cool; and then we were simple and rustic and, oh yeah, now we’re homesteaders…covered in dirt and mud.
Our hands aren’t soft anymore. Our lives don’t look anything like they did this time ten years ago. And we’re about to celebrate another anniversary and our little one isn’t so “little” anymore…
…and I wouldn’t change it for anything…
We’re constantly learning, constantly trying to love like Christ did, and constantly finding that we fall short every single day.
But that’s the journey, isn’t it?
Because what’s a journey, if you have it all….can do it all….and know it all….
