I, Pencil

Whew... sorry I haven't posted in a while!
I heard this poem or story a little while ago, and found it simply profound. It has been on my mind quite a bit lately, and I thought it was kind of a good run up to my "Story of Stuff" post.
It is pretty long but here it is:

I, Pencil
My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read

I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write.*

Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that's all I do.

You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery—more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, the wise G. K. Chesterton observed, "We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders."


I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me—no, that's too much to ask of anyone—if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple.


Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me. This sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Especially when it is realized that there are about one and one-half billion of my kind produced in the U.S.A. each year.


Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much meets the eye—there's some wood, lacquer, the printed labeling, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser.

Innumerable Antecedents

Just as you cannot trace your family tree back very far, so is it impossible for me to name and explain all my antecedents. But I would like to suggest enough of them to impress upon you the richness and complexity of my background.

My family tree begins with what in fact is a tree, a cedar of straight grain that grows in Northern California and Oregon. Now contemplate all the saws and trucks and rope and the countless other gear used in harvesting and carting the cedar logs to the railroad siding. Think of all the persons and the numberless skills that went into their fabrication: the mining of ore, the making of steel and its refinement into saws, axes, motors; the growing of hemp and bringing it through all the stages to heavy and strong rope; the logging camps with their beds and mess halls, the cookery and the raising of all the foods. Why, untold thousands of persons had a hand in every cup of coffee the loggers drink!

The logs are shipped to a mill in San Leandro, California. Can you imagine the individuals who make flat cars and rails and railroad engines and who construct and install the communication systems incidental thereto? These legions are among my antecedents.

Consider the millwork in San Leandro. The cedar logs are cut into small, pencil-length slats less than one-fourth of an inch in thickness. These are kiln dried and then tinted for the same reason women put rouge on their faces. People prefer that I look pretty, not a pallid white. The slats are waxed and kiln dried again. How many skills went into the making of the tint and the kilns, into supplying the heat, the light and power, the belts, motors, and all the other things a mill requires? Sweepers in the mill among my ancestors? Yes, and included are the men who poured the concrete for the dam of a Pacific Gas & Electric Company hydroplant which supplies the mill's power!

Don't overlook the ancestors present and distant who have a hand in transporting sixty carloads of slats across the nation.

Once in the pencil factory—$4,000,000 in machinery and building, all capital accumulated by thrifty and saving parents of mine—each slat is given eight grooves by a complex machine, after which another machine lays leads in every other slat, applies glue, and places another slat atop—a lead sandwich, so to speak. Seven brothers and I are mechanically carved from this "wood-clinched" sandwich.

My "lead" itself—it contains no lead at all—is complex. The graphite is mined in Ceylon. Consider these miners and those who make their many tools and the makers of the paper sacks in which the graphite is shipped and those who make the string that ties the sacks and those who put them aboard ships and those who make the ships. Even the lighthouse keepers along the way assisted in my birth—and the harbor pilots.

The graphite is mixed with clay from Mississippi in which ammonium hydroxide is used in the refining process. Then wetting agents are added such as sulfonated tallow—animal fats chemically reacted with sulfuric acid. After passing through numerous machines, the mixture finally appears as endless extrusions—as from a sausage grinder-cut to size, dried, and baked for several hours at 1,850 degrees Fahrenheit. To increase their strength and smoothness the leads are then treated with a hot mixture which includes candelilla wax from Mexico, paraffin wax, and hydrogenated natural fats.

My cedar receives six coats of lacquer. Do you know all the ingredients of lacquer? Who would think that the growers of castor beans and the refiners of castor oil are a part of it? They are. Why, even the processes by which the lacquer is made a beautiful yellow involve the skills of more persons than one can enumerate!

Observe the labeling. That's a film formed by applying heat to carbon black mixed with resins. How do you make resins and what, pray, is carbon black?

My bit of metal—the ferrule—is brass. Think of all the persons who mine zinc and copper and those who have the skills to make shiny sheet brass from these products of nature. Those black rings on my ferrule are black nickel. What is black nickel and how is it applied? The complete story of why the center of my ferrule has no black nickel on it would take pages to explain.

Then there's my crowning glory, inelegantly referred to in the trade as "the plug," the part man uses to erase the errors he makes with me. An ingredient called "factice" is what does the erasing. It is a rubber-like product made by reacting rape-seed oil from the Dutch East Indies with sulfur chloride. Rubber, contrary to the common notion, is only for binding purposes. Then, too, there are numerous vulcanizing and accelerating agents. The pumice comes from Italy; and the pigment which gives "the plug" its color is cadmium sulfide.

No One Knows

Does anyone wish to challenge my earlier assertion that no single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me?

Actually, millions of human beings have had a hand in my creation, no one of whom even knows more than a very few of the others. Now, you may say that I go too far in relating the picker of a coffee berry in far off Brazil and food growers elsewhere to my creation; that this is an extreme position. I shall stand by my claim. There isn't a single person in all these millions, including the president of the pencil company, who contributes more than a tiny, infinitesimal bit of know-how. From the standpoint of know-how the only difference between the miner of graphite in Ceylon and the logger in Oregon is in the type of know-how. Neither the miner nor the logger can be dispensed with, any more than can the chemist at the factory or the worker in the oil field—paraffin being a by-product of petroleum.

Here is an astounding fact: Neither the worker in the oil field nor the chemist nor the digger of graphite or clay nor any who mans or makes the ships or trains or trucks nor the one who runs the machine that does the knurling on my bit of metal nor the president of the company performs his singular task because he wants me. Each one wants me less, perhaps, than does a child in the first grade. Indeed, there are some among this vast multitude who never saw a pencil nor would they know how to use one. Their motivation is other than me. Perhaps it is something like this: Each of these millions sees that he can thus exchange his tiny know-how for the goods and services he needs or wants. I may or may not be among these items.

No Master Mind

There is a fact still more astounding: the absence of a master mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these countless actions which bring me into being. No trace of such a person can be found. Instead, we find the Invisible Hand at work. This is the mystery to which I earlier referred.

It has been said that "only God can make a tree." Why do we agree with this? Isn't it because we realize that we ourselves could not make one? Indeed, can we even describe a tree? We cannot, except in superficial terms. We can say, for instance, that a certain molecular configuration manifests itself as a tree. But what mind is there among men that could even record, let alone direct, the constant changes in molecules that transpire in the life span of a tree? Such a feat is utterly unthinkable!

I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies—millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human master-minding! Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God could make me. Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to bring me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree.

The above is what I meant when writing, "If you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing." For, if one is aware that these know-hows will naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into creative and productive patterns in response to human necessity and demand—that is, in the absence of governmental or any other coercive masterminding—then one will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free people. Freedom is impossible without this faith.

Once government has had a monopoly of a creative activity such, for instance, as the delivery of the mails, most individuals will believe that the mails could not be efficiently delivered by men acting freely. And here is the reason: Each one acknowledges that he himself doesn't know how to do all the things incident to mail delivery. He also recognizes that no other individual could do it. These assumptions are correct. No individual possesses enough know-how to perform a nation's mail delivery any more than any individual possesses enough know-how to make a pencil. Now, in the absence of faith in free people—in the unawareness that millions of tiny know-hows would naturally and miraculously form and cooperate to satisfy this necessity—the individual cannot help but reach the erroneous conclusion that mail can be delivered only by governmental "master-minding."

Testimony Galore

If I, Pencil, were the only item that could offer testimony on what men and women can accomplish when free to try, then those with little faith would have a fair case. However, there is testimony galore; it's all about us and on every hand. Mail delivery is exceedingly simple when compared, for instance, to the making of an automobile or a calculating machine or a grain combine or a milling machine or to tens of thousands of other things. Delivery? Why, in this area where men have been left free to try, they deliver the human voice around the world in less than one second; they deliver an event visually and in motion to any person's home when it is happening; they deliver 150 passengers from Seattle to Baltimore in less than four hours; they deliver gas from Texas to one's range or furnace in New York at unbelievably low rates and without subsidy; they deliver each four pounds of oil from the Persian Gulf to our Eastern Seaboard—halfway around the world—for less money than the government charges for delivering a one-ounce letter across the street!

The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson. Let society's legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit these creative know-hows freely to flow. Have faith that free men and women will respond to the Invisible Hand. This faith will be confirmed. I, Pencil, seemingly simple though I am, offer the miracle of my creation as testimony that this is a practical faith, as practical as the sun, the rain, a cedar tree, the good earth.

It really just makes me realize how utterly disconnected we are from everything we have and from each other. That seems to be one of our huge modern tragedies: disconnection.

Disconnection from:

~People: This is the age of... ipods and cell phones, where you walk on any street and almost everybody is holding up some device to their ears, cutting of any opportunity for real human interaction; of vehicles whizzing past you and your house, and not a clue or care as to who is in them; of computers and televisions and many other machines that replace real human interactions and experiences, real culture and life with some cyber and psuedo reality.

~Nature: I know how often for myself I can drive quickly by the same thing on our street hundreds of times and never notice anything for I am not going slowly enough to notice the beauty, then walk or ride my bike past the exact same things and notice so many beautiful or interesting little things I had never noticed before. How often this happens, and how much beauty and how many little kisses from the Creator am I missing out on just because I am so distracted and so disconnected from nature and ultimately God.

~Necessities/Belongings/Food: If you read the above poem and think, "wow all that just went into that pencil that I used a second ago," then think how much more goes into everything else we own. The clothes on your back, how many people were involved in creating your shirt and getting it to you so that you can wear it today? The chair you are sitting in, how many little pieces are in that thing and how much energy, how many resources, how much labor was used in the production of it? The computer that I am typing this on. This object that I take so much for granted, is marked by how many peoples sweat and labors? Or food! If you open your refrigerator and pull something off the shelf, how many other peoples hands touched it? If you had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, how many lives were involved to get that to your table, so that you could then eat it. First there is the milk, where are the cow/s that produced that milk and who do they belong to? Who milked them? And who ran the machines to process the milk? Then there is the cereal if you have wheat in your cereal, who owned the land? Who planted, and harvested and processed the wheat? Who transported the wheat? Nuts, where and who grew the nuts, who processed them, who transported them from place to place? Oil, who grew the nut, bean, etc. to make the oil from, who was involved in the making and transporting of it. The list goes on with EVERY other ingredient in the cereal. Then finally the combining of all of those ingredients and all of those peoples' labors in to a box ( which people are also involved with,) and then the transportation (which of course uses gas which people had to work for to get out of the ground and processed, and the metal and all the other parts of the vehicle,) to get it to the store at which point you could buy it. Imagine that, all the hundreds, thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people involved in just one bite of cereal.
And yet how often do we actually care or think about it and them, all those people who exist somewhere in the world right now.
It is very difficult for me to put my mind around all this, and not feel a pang of guilt. Is it really right for me to eat the cereal when all those people, the running of all those factories and therefore pollution, and all those resources, etc. were all used just so I could eat it for breakfast without even acknowledging their existence and labors??? Sure they are paid, but are those nut growers in Brazil, or wheat farmers, or cow milkers really getting paid enough for what they worked hard for, when I only pay a buck and a half for that box of cereal? I honestly don't know! And it just goes to show how truly disconnected we have become from the very things that feed and keep us alive.

~God: Really I think ultimately the worst thing is that it makes us more disconnected from God. The farther away we step from the natural order, and the way He created things to be, the more disconnected we are from Him.

I don't really understand this (which is precisely why I posted, helps me to sort my thoughts I guess, :) and I don't expect anyone, myself included to never eat cereal again, or use a pencil, but I do find that poem very interesting, and I do think this is worth thinking about because it does make us realize our dependence on the sweat of other people and it makes me more grateful for what I do have.
I must say though there is quite an appeal to try and buy things more local. Imagine if your entire bowl of cereal could be traced within a 30-60 mile radius of your house. And because you make your own cereal, you get the wheat from a farmer friend down the road, the nuts from your local almond and pecan orchard, your honey from the beehive a friend has, the oil from melted butter that you got from your local dairy, where you also got your milk. Right, I know this is imaginary thinking, but it does seem so much nobler a breakfast, than that of the one with ingredients from all over the world, produced by people who we had no clue existed.
In the past it was always this way. If the family or person didn't milk the cow, and grow the wheat themselves, they would get it from friends or from the local store that got it from the local people. Before machines there was no way to transport things such far distances as we do now. And people either made it themselves (and therefore had a completely direct connection with it) or got it locally, with the exception of maybe sugar, which was probably extremely expensive anyways.
Why is our culture so completely different now and should it be this way? It all connects back up with disconnection. :)

A Second Blog

Well I have been hesitating to do this because I don't want to have a bunch of different blogs all over the place, but I finally decided to start a second blog. It is a cooking, gardening, health, etc. blog. This is more of my intellectual blog, so I didn't want to mix the two. Here is the link: http://www.homesteadblogger.com/pursuitofthe3h/
I will also have a link to it below.
Hope you enjoy it and feel free to leave a comment to let me know you have been there.

A Poem...

The Old Meeting Hall:
by Dick Warwick

An Old Grange hall stands bereft
In a field of waving wheat
The people all have long since left
Where once with flying feet

They danced the fiddle's lively reels,
And do-si-doed in squares
But television and automobiles
Have ended such affairs

Thee neighbors all came from their farms
For camaraderie
From tiny newborn babes in arms
To the deaf and doddery

And they knew eachother well, with all
their virtues, strengths, and faults;
They'd get together in the hall
For the foxtrot and the waltz

To share their pies and socialize,
Talk of kids and kitchens-
Of critters, crops, and days gone by;
Mark births and deaths and hitchin's.

For we were all one family then,
Though perhaps not blood related-
Yes, I remember way back when
We all cooperated.

We all helped each other in a pinch
Or sometimes just for fun;
If you needed help it was a cinch
Your project would get done.

Though times back then were somewhat lean,
Entertainment- it was free;
When folks would in that hall convene
And friends and neighbors see.

And that old grange all speaks to me
Of things gone quite askew
In our present-day society
With it's hype and ballyhoo.

For now folks travel fast and far,
Meet schedules with precision;
And when they're not out in the car
They're watching television.

The art of actual conversation
Is rather antiquated-
We've lots of information,
But can't communicate it.

Oh sure, we can download it
And shift it place to place;
But there's few who can decode it
Into words of style and grace.

So I miss the meeting hall of old,
And I wish you could have known
How it was to cross the threshold
Of that place, now overgrown.

And dance all night with the neighbor gal
That you'd known since you were small;
Or meet your fated femme fatale,
And in love forever fall.

Now that old building stands forlorn
Yet still foursquare and sound;
Though by the wind and weather worn
It could someday be rebound,

For it hasn't yet been set aflame
Nor from its footings torn,
And it may yet receive acclaim
From dancers yet unborn.

So keep the roof in good repair
And doors and windows sealed;
For the past and future meet right there
In that grange hall in the field.

Stuff...

My family and I just watched the little movie "The Story of Stuff" at the website in the picture above. (If you want your thoughts to be provoked and you have 20 minutes I recommend you watch it too, it was really good.) And it really got me thinking (uh oh, there she goes again :)...So where does all this stuff come from?
Currently I am sitting in a mostly plastic chair, where did the plastic come from, who owned the factory where it was manufactured, who and where are the people who were involved in all the of the different steps involved in the making and getting the chair to me now, where I am sitting in it? I don't know...and part of the problem is, up until this point I didn't care. Just look around you now, do you know where half the things around you came from? Not only that but have we ever thought about all the energy, effort, and people who were behind each little object and possession of ours, all our JUNK??!
With everything we have now coming from big factories or imported from other countries, we have been trained to become so detached and separated from the things we buy and own and where or who they came from. There is no longer a connection between maker and buyer.
And the big corps probably want it to be that way too. Kind of the way they want you to be with God, just enjoy and use and waste all of this creation and beauty that God gave us, but never even stop to think about who it came from and why he gave it to us; it is yours so now you can use and trash it as you wish. What is the most sad thing is that just as we trash nature, we trash the stuff we have, and thereby trashing the effort that went into them. Statistics show that 99% of the stuff we buy is thrown out within the first 6 months of owning it. Not only is that unsustainable physically, it is unsustainable morally. What kind of moral character is being promoted and practiced. I like to say that we are a throw away nation, if something is ugly, if you don't like it or want it, if it is outdated, or old, even if there is a small fixable problem, what do we do... THROW IT AWAY!
I remember reading Farmer Boy, written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, about her husband's childhood. One thing that distinctly popped out in my brain was that each child had ONE, (not 2 not 5 not 10, ) 1 pair of shoes that they wore and used. Then if they were worn or they had grown out of them by the end of the year, the cobbler would stop by their house on his yearly rounds and measure and specially fit a new pair of shoes for the children. In fact he was a family friend and the family always looked forward to his yearly visit, to share meals, tell stories. And sometimes if the parents didn't have enough money, they would trade something they had in exchange for the shoes. Now what kind of a different mindset, what kind of different moral character does that show? The kids knew how to take care of their stuff, they knew where it came from, and saw with their own eyes the effort their cobbler friend put into them. They couldn't or wouldn't trash those shoes. Look at the huge contrast between then and now, that was less than 150 years ago. How could things have changed so much and so drastically?
At times like this I just feel hopeless, I feel like nothing will last and there is nothing we can do to help such a gargantuan problem. Then I have a speck of hope and think that half the work is acknowledging the problem and taking little steps every day to try and fix it. It all starts in the heart with the decision to value the things we have and the effort behind them, and once we have that perspective we can change a whole lot of things. Where there's a will there's a way!

(P.S.) I would love to know what your thoughts are on this, if I am absolutely crazy to you or what. :) More and more things have been sprouting up in my brain as a result of this, I am already formulating a whole new post in my brain, that is kind of an off shoot of this one. So let me know what you think! :)

Wedding, Life, Time... all that good stuff

So this has been life recently...


Brandon and Morielle Danevicius were married on July 6 2008.

Wow that is weird... (I know it has already been almost 2 weeks, but I am still soaking it all up.)
After the wedding I realized how incredibly fast time goes by, and how I have all these memories about Morielle as fresh as the air I breath, but that are all now just the past. So I would like to post this poem that I wrote after the wedding, as I was trying to comprehend time and how it was the my sister is now a married woman.


Blink and it's gone

Just a few minutes ago you were taking your first breath
Everything was new and you couldn't even think of death

You blinked and it was all just the past
Now you are five, walking, talking, and everything happening so fast

Just a moment later you are blowing out ten candles on your birthday cake...
you are two digits now, with both hands counting your age
Blink and you'll see how many years time can take

Years passes by like seconds, and now you're a teen
dreaming about the future, as everyone does at 15

Don't wait another moment to savor every memory
Because then you'll blink and it will all be history

As quick as a breath five more years went by
And now you are walking with your daddy down the aisle
now ready for true love's first kiss
Just blink and you will see how many years you did miss

First five and then five more, and then ten years are gone like a bolt
You're forty now with a trail of kids behind you
your oldest an adult
With just one blink you saw how fast your children grew

Forty more years flew by like forty more seconds
A heart full of memories is all you have left
then when death was approaching and you didn't have long
It was then that you realized that you blinked and it was gone

After one moment you found what you waited your whole life to see
a place that no matter how many blinks
Time would stay still in happy eternity


This is not exactly Morielle's life it was just inspired by her wedding, and my revelation that because every blink means history, I have to savor life and spend it the best I can.

(Check back soon I am now hoping to keep my blog up more dutifully... and maybe if you persuade me I will start Saturday Sketches back up, (not that you want it or anything.) It just helps me to be more regular with my blog... we shall see... actually we shall blink. :)

God bless everyone!

:)

So Long and Farewell to the Lunds and the UP

So this is the end, it is my last day here in the UP with the Lunds...:(


Arm wrestling with the girls, comparing when I first came and they all beat me miserably, and now on the last day, I beat them all once, at least. :)
This is where I was for the last month, and now I have to leave it... :(
GOODBYE to the UP!!!

Well I came and now I am leaving. I learned so much and had tons of fun with these wonderful people. Thanks to God and my parents that they allowed me to come here, and thank you to the wonderful Lunds for having me for so long (and tolerating me.) It was truly amazing!

Cabins, Clothes, and Craziness

So these are a few of the things we were doing the last few days:

Theresa's fern hat...(just for me to look silly :)

Ok, so don't laugh... we were stomping a load of laundry, to save electricity, water and to get the clothes cleaner, (because they have a dysfunctional machine) and for fun, and it was VERY effective.
Don't they look lovely, they tell of hard work and of efficiency. :)

Mixing the cement, clay, and gravel mix, to fill the holes for the foundation.

Filling the hole for the last post... the last of 18 holes. :)

This is the foundation for the future cabin.

Does it look interesting? (Oh I know what you're gonna say, that I am now completely and officially cultured..:) but hey you gotta keep a healthy amount of fun insanity. :)

Prettiness and the Porkies

These are pictures from the Porcupine (mountains as they call them, but bumps as I call them... :)
We went there yesterday, and did a little hiking here and a little trail walking there. It was fun and beautiful, so here are a couple pictures to capture it:

On the way to the Porkies
A creepy, crawly, cool, claustrophobic, cave... :) Just jokin!
Lake of the clouds
More of the bumps :P
This was supposed to be Nonesuch waterfall...it turned out as more of a little trickle
Beautiful rainbow at the end of the day
Prettiness...

Well we did do more than that, but this is all I had. If you want to see more pictures of last week, go to Mary Lund's blog: http://www.homesteadblogger.com/AHomesteadDaughter
Well thats life!

Pealing Logs, Making Baskets, and Spinning Wool with the Lunds

Starting off the week with a beautiful rainbow


Carding and spinning wool (or at least attempting to)

Herding the cows with bikes


Carrying and peeling logs


Making baskets with Annie ( Not too bad for amateurs)


Well this has been life here in the UP with the Lunds... :) Anyone jealous? :P

A taste of life with the Lunds on a UP homestead

All can be said of my life in just a few pictures:

Standing in Lake Superior

(Some ) of the Lunds: Mary, Theresa, Annie, Michael, Stephen, and Lizzy

An 8-9 mile bike ride in the UP countryside

I milked a cow!!! ( The poor thing I was probably doing it all wrong anyway)

And this is Johnny!!! (I couldn't resist :)


Wading through a (to me, not them) very cold creek.
An old, abandoned, one room school house

And that is life... (though I probably should have posted a picture of the homemade chocolate mint cookies and fresh raw milk we had for breakfast and dinner, but I didn't want you to feel too jealous of me.)

I am one travellin' girl

So it seems like I really enjoy traveling a lot, I am going on another trip this time it is long but only a month. I will be going to four states, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Michigan.
I will not be doing my regular Saturday Sketches, but hopefully I will be posting about my adventures in Oklahoma and Michigan. In Oklahoma I will be going to the traditional Clear Creek Monastery and meeting some old friends of my dad. Then I will be spending most of the time with some friends in Michigan (hey Mary and Annie), where they live on a farm/homestead, and will be teaching me some AMAZING skills, and modeling to me a family living an agrarian (like what I was talking about before) lifestyle. So hopefully I'll get out a few pictures or posts here and there, and then I will start back on the regular Saturday Sketches when I return in July. Hope to see you and I will keep all you, my blog readers, in my prayers. Have a wonderful end of spring and beginning of Summer, (wow is it that already, time has flown bye.)

The Saturday Sketch

This is for all you Mother's out there (especially mine :) you are amazing!

Motherhood "How could not the station of Motherhood, the very utterance of the word, evoke such wonder, such awe, such honor, as to render every human in its hearing speechless! For my very ability to hear the word, to ponder its meaning, exists only because I was given birth...by a mother...brought into the world through a series of miracles not even science can explain. "Mothers shape the world one family at a time. Family life is the foundation of human existence and mother is the cornerstone upon which the family is built."
Mary Carlisle Beasley

Have a wonderful Mother's day!
*I know this is a day early, but I will be gone on the actual day.

The Saturday Sketch

First of all, I am so sorry this is so late in the day, I wasn't able to get to the computer 'till now.

I wanted to use this picture, because it in a way epitomizes the beauty of this spring. This particular drawing has two meanings, first, is that we can offer all this beauty and every wildflower or rose to Christ with joy and wonder, much like a child would; and second, it signifies that Christ has given it all to us in a perfect, beautiful, innocent and loving sacrifice and act of love. I can just picture every time I see a flower, Jesus' perfect hand that put it there. It almost gives a profound meaning to every flower, or at least we can view it as such, as God creating them for us to offer back to Him. Here is a little quote to state it more poetically:

"God waits to win back his own flowers as gifts from man's hands. " ~Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 1916

The Saturday Sketch

(I feel a little bit conceited to put a picture of myself up here, but it is a self portrait I did a couple years ago and I thought that as I am striving to become a better person everyday, that it would be excusable. :)
Recently I have really been pondering the meaning of life. Everyday I realize how much I really do encounter so many different people in different walks of life. Yesterday I played the whole day with a 2 year old, and as I was leaving I looked at his hands and pictured them 10-20 years later. His precious little hands would no longer be holding my fingers on the playground, but would be much bigger and before long he would be all grown up. Then I examined my life and realized that my little two year old hands of the past, would never have expected to be sitting here typing this today, and these same hands today, are not expecting what will happen when I am an old lady with most of my life behind me. I am sort of in the "think, realize, and scold myself" mode right now, my brain will go off on these long tangents about the future and imagining what will happen someday, but then I realize and remember that I should be living in the present, then I mentally scold myself, and jerk back to the present. It is like a constant battle for me to keep time in perspective, time has always been a rather daunting and confusing prospect to me. To think that I am me and I live now and not in some other time, and that someday I will no longer be on this earth, and all those other befuddling concepts. When I was 9 and 10 I used to just lay in bed and cry, I wasn't exactly sad but I just couldn't comprehend time, it didn't make sense to me.
So basically I think what I am getting at here is, (if you haven't lost me on the strange path my brain takes me on,) is that I must make the best of this confusing time that I have been given and make sense out of it, become better because of it, and always strive to look for the good in it, and in the meantime be grateful for it, and not try and rush the future.

The Saturday Sketch

I am sure as many of you know, Pope Benedict the XVI is in the United States right now, so I thought this would be a good picture to use. I also thought I would post a little part of his homily, because I found it very beautiful and inspiring. It is really what I have been trying to talk about and promote here on this blog, so here it is:
"In this morning’s second reading, Saint Paul reminds us that spiritual unity – the unity which reconciles and enriches diversity – has its origin and supreme model in the life of the triune God. As a communion of pure love and infinite freedom, the Blessed Trinity constantly brings forth new life in the work of creation and redemption. The Church, as “a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit” (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4), is called to proclaim the gift of life, to serve life, and to promote a culture of life...The proclamation of life, life in abundance, must be the heart of the new evangelization. For true life – our salvation – can only be found in the reconciliation, freedom and love which are God’s gracious gift. This is the message of hope we are called to proclaim and embody in a world where self-centeredness, greed, violence, and cynicism so often seem to choke the fragile growth of grace in people’s hearts. Saint Irenaeus, with great insight, understood that the command which Moses enjoined upon the people of Israel: “Choose life!” (Dt 30:19) was the ultimate reason for our obedience to all God’s commandments (cf. Adv. Haer. IV, 16, 2-5). Perhaps we have lost sight of this: in a society where the Church seems legalistic and “institutional” to many people, our most urgent challenge is to communicate the joy born of faith and the experience of God’s love. "

The Saturday Sketch

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle.
But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air but to walk on Earth.
Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes.
All is a miracle.”

This is kind of a run off from my last Saturday Sketch, about our gathering wisdom from un-seemingly wise things like little children or flowers. In a way it is regaining our sense of wonder. Like the I hope you dance song: "I hope never lose your sense of wonder."
Or as my sister always says, "Finding beauty in the unexpected," (thank you Heather :)
Our culture is such that there is no longer time to just stop and be amazed or to have wonder in something beautiful. Look at cars, you zoom past everything so fast you don't have time to look or savor anything. The other day, I decided to walk the same road that we usually drive, and for the first time I noticed how beautiful a certain thing was, or how many lovely things had been there, but that I had never seemed to notice because we were always zooming past them. It reminded me how really important it is to stop and look at things in wonder.
I think I will leave you with this poem written by a girl who has cancer, she wanted to share with the world the importance of savoring every moment:

SLOW DANCE
Have you ever
Watched kids
On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to
The rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a
Butterfly's' erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading
Night?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so
Fast.

Time is short.
The music won't
Last.

Do you run through each day
On the
Fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the
Reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in your
Bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through
Your head?

You'd better slow down

Don't dance so
Fast.
Time is short.
The music won't
Last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it
Tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see
His
Sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good
Friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call
And say,'Hi'

You'd better slow down.

Don't dance
So fast.

Time is short.
The music won't
Last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You
Miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry
Through your day,
It is like an unopened
Gift..
Thrown away.

Life is not a
Race..
Do take it slower
Hear the
Music
Before the song is over.

Our Missions

I read this article from Spirit Daily : spiritdaily.com, and found it very interesting. :

Perhaps most intriguing in the depth of spirituality is the notion that in life we all -- each one of us -- have a special mission. We have written of this before. Let us explore it further. This is a very deep secret in your spirit. You have been sent here for a reason -- a specific reason that is unknown to you -- and it is important for you to fulfill that assignment. This is a prayer to be said each day -- that your mission be completed.

In fact, every person's mission is equal to every other person's. It may not make any "sense" to you -- any worldly sense -- but what God has assigned to you is as important as what He assigned to the President.

At a spiritual level, we all reverberate -- have effects -- that will not be recognized until later (that is, eternity).

Thus it is important for all of us to pray each day to fulfill the task.

That's not necessarily to know exactly what a mission is. Indeed, it may be against God's Will for you to precisely know what has been set for you. It may compromise the "test" of life. If we knew exactly what God expects, it would make the "test" easier" (and make no mistake: life is a constant test).

At the same time, we are not to dwell on what the mission is so much as fulfilling it according to its time. We are not to rush into what we think our mission may be. We are safest and most effective when we simply pray to do God's Will every moment.

This will take us to successful completion. A mission is defined as being sent forth with the authority to perform a specific duty. We get into difficulty when we stray from the authority (or misuse it).

"Your mission will be made known to you so that you might make a clearer decision," one woman claims she was told by Jesus. "But after this, you must decide. If you return to your life on earth, your mission and much of what you have been shown will be removed from your memory."

It could be simply raising a child. It could be helping someone who is ill. It could be offering up pain. It could be shining shoes. It could be suffering an illness to give another person the opportunity to help us! It could be simply praying for others. It could be leading a nation or cleaning the floors of a school -- both of which, in God's eyes, may be equal; it could be saying nice things to people as a cashier at a checkout.

For every time we do, it has a domino effect. A drop of goodness is a bright light that will cause other sparks of goodness.

Another spiritual truth:

Holiness sanctifies our surroundings.

The devil tries to twist the mission we have been assigned -- the grace we have been given, the gifts. He will seduce a leader into misleading a nation. He will cause a person who has been given the gift of income to use that money only on himself. He will influence a person who has a mission to build into construction of mansions instead of homes for the poor. The biggest traps are lust, selfishness, and materialism!

Doing God's Will (and following Sacred Scripture) is the answer.

One thing we can know: kindness will bring us joy and somewhere in the mysterious missions we have -- somewhere in the depths -- is the mission to love everywhere and everyone and despite the circumstances. Somewhere in that is always the "test"!

It is very interesting to me, because it seems that everyone is always pressuring, the world is always pushing you to go out there and get a career, be someone, get a good job and money so that you can live comfortably and "do" well. I have always had a negative reaction to this, I ask why? Why is it that this means success and being a babysitter or raising a family isn't success or isn't fulfilling your mission. But truly that is just what the world wants you to believe, not God. Babysitting or having a family is one of the best missions, just as cleaning floors or washing cars is. I think it was one time I was cleaning a floor or something like that, and I was kind of annoyed, why was I spending my time on this? then it dawned on me that maybe there could be some spiritual significance. That changed my attitude and then I decided to offer a prayer for all the people who had walked on that floor. Whenever I feel like I am doing so called "menial" tasks I must keep reminding myself that this may be greater than a senator giving a speech. Who am I to judge what is important in God's eyes.

That said I am going to go clean my room, and pray for whoever else is cleaning their room right now. :)

The Saturday Sketch

He is happiest who hath power to gather wisdom from a flower. ~Mary Howitt

I found this quote and this picture to fit very well together. The reason for this is that so often it is the young children who have the ability to cherish a flower that are the happiest. One time I was babysitting a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old, and when we went outside they immediately discovered the little wildflowers that grew around the edge of the driveway. It was like it was a profound concept to them, these flowers. We spent quite some time out there looking at the different colors and textures, and picking a few here and there. Not only did they greatly appreciate them, but the 4 yr old spurted out some spiritual meaning connecting God with the flowers. It is about time that we take to heart the verse where God tells us to "be like the little children."
We can gather the wisdom from the children and from the wisdom they gather from little things like flowers.

The Saturday Sketch

Well we have still been celebrating the resurrection of our Savior so I thought this would be a good one, seeing as we are rejoicing and praising the Lord. Then I thought of a verse in Psalms:
Angels of the Lord bless the Lord
Praise and exalt him above all forever
Bless the Lord all you works of the Lord
Praise and exalt Him above all forever

Well we are a work of the Lord so I look at it as a duty (at least this week:) to praise and exalt the Lord.

The Saturday Sketch

Well here we are with one day left before easter, and with Jesus still in the tomb, so I thought this would be perfect for today. I also just watched The Passion last night, and all I have been thinking about is that ever since. A strange thought struck me, if I had lived during Jesus' time, would I have cried "Crucify him," or would I have been different. It is a hard question, as you look at his wounds and pain and sacrifice now, 2000 some years later, and to say, "poor Jesus," but what if we had been a part of that mob crying for death and pain, for Christ. It is just something that came to me, so I thought I would say it. The best we can do now though, is accept Christ's death and suffering as a forgiveness of our sins, and live like Christ's people, not the mob who crucified him. Have a good Holy Saturday, and a wonderful Easter, as we wouldn't be here the way we are without it.

An alternative Saturday post

I decided today to post the comments from the last post. I have heard that the comment link is not behaving, and that not everyone can access it, so I decided to post the comments here so everyone can see. They are quite interesting, and long enough to be multiple posts. (For those of you have commented, I hope you don't mind.) I don't want to drop this yet, so I am going to keep pushing it. :)

"Well, Julia, I'm sure you already know that I am so utterly far removed from anyone's most remote definition or idea or thought of agrarianism that my commenting on this particular post seems laughable! Not to mention the fact that I haven't read the book (but I've heard of it, does that count?)

But, hey, you asked for comments!

I'm unlikely to ever be involved in this myself, though of course I can see its value. What can I say? I was raised in a certain culture, and have no desire or inclination to leave it. While I enjoy to a certain extent and at certain times the great outdoors, I guess in my "real life" I honestly prefer to mostly keep it at bay. Please don't hate me!! Just kidding, I know you'd never. :)

I mean, for example, we have a travel trailer, but we don't actually go camping in the purest sense of the word. No, we go RVing! Different concept altogether. And we often stay in concrete campgrounds and bring our laptop along, and have a perfectly smashing time doing it! (Of course, to be fair and not make us sound more urban than we are, other times we stay in more rustic campgrounds.)

I hope you or any one else will feel free to refute anything I've said! Of course, everything is just my personal opinion, I'm not against the ideals of agrarianism, I just wouldn't enjoy the lifestyle myself. And I am perfectly willing to admit that I probably don't even have an accurate picture of what it actually is that I've rejected. So feel free to educate me! (Actually, "rejected" is too strong a word. "Neglected" or "ignored" is probably closer to the mark.)"

March 11, 2008 6:47 PM

Jules said...

"Well that is a very interesting thing you have said there. Of course I would never even close to...(as you said) "hate" you in the slightest...:) I actually don't believe that everyone is called to this lifestyle, in the literal sense of the word, at all. This is why it is all so fascinating to me, there is such a wide range and variety of peoples lifestyle choices. And my goal is to understand that.
You said before: "I'm not against the ideals of agrarianism, I just wouldn't enjoy the lifestyle myself."
Well that is the beauty of Agrarianism, you don't have to actually LIVE the farming way, or anything like that. The real core of an Agrarian mindset is its values. No, you don't have to have a farm or even a garden to believe in agrarianism, in fact I believe many of the essays written in that book are written by urban-dwellers, but merely believe in the restoration of families and communities, that have become very separated in this modern day and age. That is really the real reason for any of this. People see Agrarianism (in its complete picture with values as its core) as the way to pull their families back together and the perfect opportunity for restoring community.
Another main idea of Agrarianism is that of restoration. Anyone can go and see all the economical and natural problems in the mainstream right now. I mean look at the disappearing bees, or at the horrible effects of the big companies getting a hold of our food and sustainability: genetic modification, hormones and antibiotics pumped into the meat, and many other problems with the big industrialization, and of mass-production our food sources.

Compare a modern meat plant, run by some rich businessmen, who only cares about the big bucks, in contrast to a family farm that gives nutritional, safety-assured, natural meat. The family is trying to support itself by working at home together. If any person could choose which one to get their meat from, what would it be? See, that is another huge aspect of Agrarianism,
"~In the community-supported agriculture group that links local food buyers and food growers into a partnership, one that sustains farmers, economically, promotes ecologically sound farming practices, and gives city dwellers a known source of wholesome food.

For those agrarians who are called to a city or more suburban lifestyle, finding and supporting that kind of local community is essential to their beliefs and practices, and the welfare of humanity. Here is a very interesting thing I found, it is like "Store Wars" except with the Matrix. (Mark would really enjoy it I think :)- www.themeatrix.com

That supporting of local and family farms and food sources and the values behind Agrarianism is really what I am getting at here. Like I said before, I am not asking everyone to drop it all and move to farms and raise food, but rather hoping to open up and restore a different lifestyle, a set of beliefs and values, all rooted in the sacred traditions of family and community. In their words,
"In all settings, agrarian practices can stimulate hope for more joyful living, healthier families, and more contented, centered lives."
That is my goal and my dream that we can all have that, no matter where we live or who we are. I am trying to understand it all, it is a deep hole that will take a long time to come to the bottom of, but once you start, you just want to keep pursuing it. But it sure is a glorious pursuit, well worth it all, and that is why I posted that, that is really my goal for this blog in general, to pursue what I believe and to call others to do the same.
This really great! I love talking about stuff like this, oh the joys of thinking!
Your post size is perfect, I want a a lot of discussion on this. So keep on posting! Bring it on!"

March 11, 2008 10:14 PM

"Hey Julia,

Again I couldn't click on the comments link, so I finally asked Brett about it, and he showed me a way to get around it. So now I'm good.

Thanks for your answer, I learned some things I hadn't considered before. For example, you said:

"That supporting of local and family farms and food sources and the values behind Agrarianism is really what I am getting at here. Like I said before, I am not asking everyone to drop it all and move to farms and raise food, but rather hoping to open up and restore a different lifestyle, a set of beliefs and values, all rooted in the sacred traditions of family and community."

Using this definition, I, even I, could call myself an agrarian! And yet I don't think anyone would consider me as such. I might support the idea, but my life is just so far removed from making it happen! I love the IDEA of supporting family farms, but my actions speak louder than words. I'm not willing to sacrifice in some other area in order to be able to afford that kind of food. If money was not an issue, I'd be far more inclined to do all my shopping at Whole Foods! Occasionally I do shop there, but it's the idea of sustained, consistent natural food choices that I quite literally can't buy into. It's sad that it really comes down to money. I mean, who wouldn't want to eat (and feed their children) the healthiest, most nutritious food available?

So much of what's been done to us in the last 70 years or so is a great big experiment. Everybody on the planet ate organic before then! There was no such thing as genetically modified food, grain-fed beef, milk from hormone- and antibiotic-injected cows. I certainly wouldn't have been eating delicious blueberries from Chile in January (which I did, by the way).

So I do love and am attached to my unnatural way of life, but am fully aware of the unnaturalness of it!

I also realize I'm totally in over my head trying to discuss a topic about which I know so little! You should invite all your family and friends to post comments, we could get a real round-table discussion going!"

March 13, 2008 6:02 PM

Jules said...

"Well! This is all very fascinating. Frankly I don't know what to say now.

I mean as far as I can tell, you understand it all perfectly well. So that is not even an issue. :)

You said "So much of what's been done to us in the last 70 years or so is a great big experiment."
I TOTALLY agree with you. That is a perfect way of saying it. But just as in any other experiment there are going to be the people who buy in to it, and the people who don't. I am not going to be a person who buys into, and that is why i believe in Agrarianism because it is for all those who won't. I guess once you know about it, it is just a matter of deciding what part you are going to play in it.

In terms of money, that is probably the number one thing that keeps people from buying locally and naturally. But the way I look at it, is that you are going to spend your money on something, so you might as well spend it on important things, such as your sustenance and nourishment. Not only is it bettering your body, but it is putting your money in the hands of families and local farmers who are trying to support their families and the local economy. Instead of putting it in the pockets of the big corporations, who are only out for money and not the betterment of the people, hence: GMO, antibiotics and hormones, and all that other nasty stuff they do for mass production.

See I think it is sooooo much bigger than we think. These corps. are tinkering with nature as if they were God, taking the natural structure of creation and turning it into a big experiment, or investment, it is so wrong what they are doing. So that is why something like Agrarianism, (or Crunchy Conservatism, they are all the same idea) is so important right now, we must tun things around, (there are already problems with bees disappearing and many other problems.) I am not trying to be a doomsday enviromentalist, but I do recognize a lot of problems as a cause of the horrible state of our food production and consumption, and I think that now we may need to compromise a little comfort here and there, for the betterment of the future.
We can't go on living the consumeristic way that we do, it won't last forever, it will end, and when it does those who put their life in it's hands and bought into it all, will really suffer. Agrarianism (with it's values of tradition and community) recognizes that and is trying to call people to be different, so that we will be able to last and not fall when consumerism and materialism falls. I really think that it goes beyond just our tables and homes, I think it is a choice that would effect everyone, so that is why I feel so passionately about this, that it is so important. We need to turn the culture around and it has got to start with every individual. As Gahndi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." That is really what it all comes down to I think.

Well I am sorry that the link is not working, is it the one at the bottom of the post that says "such-and-such comments." That has been working fine for me, but maybe I'll go look to the settings and try and fix it.
Yes I will ask the rest of the family to join in, (most of them don't even read my blog :) but I will ask them. I agree we can have a pretty good discussion going here.:)
Well thanks for all your input and hopefully I am not coming across too harsh, it's just that this is important to me... so that is why I'm here. "
~Jules

"You're not sounding harsh in the least. I'm enjoying the discussion. And I can't believe your family doesn't read your blog! They oughta.

The problem with the comment link is on our end, not yours. It has something to do with pop-ups, according to Brett, but he showed me a trick to get around it.

Julia, I think we really are in agreement about much of this. I have realized more and more that the way I actually live is not always in accordance with what I believe. The whole "experiment" idea is actually quite frightening to me, but even that has not been enough to motivate me to change my life in any meaningful way. Even though I'm concerned about what's being done to us, I can't muster up enough concern to stop eating fast food or junk food, other than for weight loss purposes. I know that must sound amazing to someone with your ideals, that the way I look is a far greater motivating factor for me, than is my and my family's health. I have no explanation for this. It just is.

I look forward to more of your thought-provoking posts!"