Reflections from the Journey

Well, it’s been a little over 8 months since I wrote about my dream for the future so I thought I would post an update on what’s been going on.

While I have been learning a LOT, the whole process feels like taking baby steps.  You know the shaky, unsure, off balance kind of steps I’m talking about.  They are cute and part of the learning process, but they don’t cover much distance.   Here is a sampling of some of the baby steps I (along with my family) have taken:

I planted my first all organic garden.   Most of the plants were grown from seed & the garden was watered using rainwater collected in my 2 rain barrels.  I planted sweet peas, carrots, potatoes, a variety of beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, snap peas, watermelon, & pumpkin.   There was a decent harvest but not the huge bounty for which I was hoping.  The true harvest, though, is what I learned about the timing of plantings,  integrated pest management, location, harvest times, etc.  This year’s garden should be a big improvement.

My family & I have been eating much more local produce & meat, though we still have a long way to go.

I made my first 2 batches of strawberry jam from strawberries grown about 3 miles away.  It is quite tasty and has renewed my love of PB&J.  I am bummed, however, that we only have 1 jar remaining.  (Would it be wrong to hide it from the kids?)  I had hoped to also freeze and can/jar some other veggies, but it didn’t work out to well.  I didn’t have enough tomatoes ready at any one time to can those and while I did freeze some snap peas, I didn’t blanch the first so they went bad.  Learning, still learning…

Yep, these past few months have been focused on a lot of learning.  I’ve been learning a lot about relationships, community (or lack thereof), sustainable gardening/farming, how the “Good news” applies in everyday life, the state of our culture, economy, & government, the role of the Church & my place in it, photography, myself and many other things that often make me feel as if my brain is ready to explode.  Honestly (not that I haven’t ever been honest with you), some of the things I now know and see I sometimes wish I could un-know & wish I could close my eyes.  Sometimes I really wish I had “taken the blue pill.”

Along with the learning has been a lot of waiting.  Waiting, waiting, waiting……and more waiting.  Whenever I start to complain about the waiting (more often than I’d like to say) I’m reminded of the apostle Paul’s years in between his conversion and his mission to the Gentiles.   He spent a number of years learning (& growing) before setting out on his journey.  (Of course, Paul had Barnabas there to instruct and mentor him, but I won’t get into that in this post.)

During this waiting period I’ve also been working.  I’ve done a fair amount of shooting of new photographs.  I’ve remodeled the website & gallery.  I’ve mentored a young photographer.  I’ve given a couple of presentations.  I’ve made some good connections.  And I’ve done a lot of crying out to God.

There have been some  positive signs but nothing I can really share just yet.

And that pretty much brings us back to the present.  Tomorrow’s post (yep, that’s right 2 posts in 2 days.  contain your excitement!) will be a clearer look at what I’ve been dreaming about and how you can help.  In the meantime please pray for God to guide my dreams and visions and to open up the doors of opportunity.

Created & Creative by God’s Design,

Rich Nicoloff

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