Farming Dreams

Once, many years ago, I told a near and dear friend that I had dreams of becoming Amish. Don't laugh; I was at least partly serious, though I'll admit that I was more attracted to the idea of living in community, simply, with a spiritual life and my family as my focus,  than I was to the idea of wearing the same clothing all the time and foregoing make up.  I know those are shallow things, but I'm an artist and I love using myself as a canvas on pretty much a daily basis, and I detest uniforms.  

"You can't just become Amish," she advised. "They don't let you join, I don't think."

"Couldn't I marry in or something?" I asked, somewhat hopefully.

"I don't think they let you do that either," came the reply.

"Okay," I replied wistfully. "But I can dream."

Truly, I think what I was attracted to back then (and still today) was the idea of living more in harmony with the land around me.  I love the idea of living in a community with other people of like spirit, growing vegetables and creating artwork and tending to animals.  I fancy the idea of a life which is largely free of the terrors of the outside world, because television would not be a part of it, either much or at all.  I love the idea of living a life where my spiritual path would be the same as my daily one, where my hourly chores would honor the rhythms of the earth and blessings would punctuate every activity.  

Besides the fact that I wasn't born into an Amish existence, there are other reasons it would never work out.  A few snippets:

Oh, look! The full moon is next week. Time to get the girls together!

This herbal garden is really coming along!  The thyme will be great for spell work.

When I was at the craft store today, I found the perfect sparkly skull for this year's Samhain altar!

Um, yeah, hmmmmm....there would be a few things standing in the way of my blissful Amish experience.  For all of the things I could accept, there would be lots of things about me that would get me ex-communicated. 

For now, I'm contenting myself with our back yard farm, which has been yielding some fresh veggies, eggs, and a measure of grateful satisfaction.  I've been dreaming a lot lately about that farm in the country, though.  I feel a calling in that direction and keep mentioning it to my husband, even though I have no idea how we'd leave everything and begin a farming life.  First of all, neither of us knows anything much about farming.  We would need to do a lot of small time farming first to learn the basics.  My husband is a country boy and knows a lot about hunting, cleaning animals post hunting, fishing, and that sort of thing. He's a mean campfire cook and can rough it like nobody I know.  Like me, however, he grew up more or less in the suburbs. I've lived near farms, but never on one. His story is pretty much the same in that regard.

Now, if I found a community of people living in proximity and farming, that might work.

And so, the dream continues.