I am a person who cannot be idle. I'm always trying to get something done.
I think it is because I worked hard as a child and teen. I don't think most people would know it to see me now. My family of five had two big gardens, raised animals, hung out clothes on a line, and heated our home with a wood burner. My sister and I were the eldest, only 18 months difference in our ages, and our brother was significantly younger, so the hard chores fell to us. I hiked, fished, and backpacked my way through most of my early teens. I've helped build a barn, a chicken house, countless doghouses...we didn't play Wii. As a kid, I did the type of things that are formative to a young person, like jumping off barns just to see if you could do it without getting hurt. That means assessing that this'll probably hurt, but trying it anyway. And when you make it safe, you feel liberated. I spent long afternoons jogging in the country, stopping to pet the same horses that recognized me and came to chuff for an apple (if you were ever driving through N. Indiana and saw some crazy girl jogging with an apple in each fist, that was me).
Now, I lived in Northern Indiana, so it wasn't particularly strenuous hiking that I did, but I'd go for hours on end. Being outdoors so much taught me more than just how much water to bring, which animals to avoid, and how to find dry firewood. When you spend enough time at something, you learn more than you intially expect or can imagine. I learned how to listen, how to be still, how to breathe. When I didn't know it, God was there. His guiding love was most present to me in the quietness of His creation. Still is. I despise city life for this very reason.
I'm on a mission, currently, to find stillness again. But it's so easy to lose here, even when I can find it.
I think it is because I worked hard as a child and teen. I don't think most people would know it to see me now. My family of five had two big gardens, raised animals, hung out clothes on a line, and heated our home with a wood burner. My sister and I were the eldest, only 18 months difference in our ages, and our brother was significantly younger, so the hard chores fell to us. I hiked, fished, and backpacked my way through most of my early teens. I've helped build a barn, a chicken house, countless doghouses...we didn't play Wii. As a kid, I did the type of things that are formative to a young person, like jumping off barns just to see if you could do it without getting hurt. That means assessing that this'll probably hurt, but trying it anyway. And when you make it safe, you feel liberated. I spent long afternoons jogging in the country, stopping to pet the same horses that recognized me and came to chuff for an apple (if you were ever driving through N. Indiana and saw some crazy girl jogging with an apple in each fist, that was me).
Now, I lived in Northern Indiana, so it wasn't particularly strenuous hiking that I did, but I'd go for hours on end. Being outdoors so much taught me more than just how much water to bring, which animals to avoid, and how to find dry firewood. When you spend enough time at something, you learn more than you intially expect or can imagine. I learned how to listen, how to be still, how to breathe. When I didn't know it, God was there. His guiding love was most present to me in the quietness of His creation. Still is. I despise city life for this very reason.
I'm on a mission, currently, to find stillness again. But it's so easy to lose here, even when I can find it.
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