MOVING FORWARD.
First of all, I know a lot of people are waiting anxiously to hear some news. But basically...I've got nothing. Although many more opportunities, offers, and suggestions have come up, we haven't yet made a decision. We have spent the past few days keeping up with the farm chores, researching, and making a big ol' list of PROS and CONS.But on another note: Jesse is currently reading The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball (I just finished it: it is wonderful). This morning, he was reading the chapter where Kristin is starting to get the impression that no one in her new community thinks her and her husband, who have just started an organic farm in upstate New York, are going to succeed. When her doubts begin to get the best of her, she asks her husband about it: "Of course we had a chance, he'd say, and anyway, it didn't matter if this venture failed. In his view, we were already a success, because we were doing something hard and it was something that mattered to us. You don't measure things like that with words like success or failure, he said. Satisfaction comes from trying hard things and then going on to the next hard thing, regardless of the outcome. What mattered was whether or not you were moving in a direction you thought was right."As Jesse and I ate our lunch today - juicy, purple slices of heirloom tomato on warm bread with our own butter and slivers of spicy garlic - I was stunned with the simplicity of it, the perfection of its smallness. And I reflected on these last 5 months - what all we have accomplished. We have eaten so many meals like these, beautiful meals with the food we grew. We have fed others, many loved ones and friends. We have slept most nights with the tiredness and true rest that can only come from devastatingly hard work. And so, as I feel words like "failure" start to creep in...I try to focus on this: On a tomato sandwich, on the positive words and support from our friends, and on the excitement and possibility that lies ahead as we continue to move forward. And that feels pretty successful.- Hannah.
