The truth is, we go forward changing and adapting to the world spinning around us. Just like my parents left a sheep ranch in Wyoming to start a business in rural Washington, my husband and I moved to Southern California for a corporate job in finance.
My mom sewed my clothes and grew our food in the garden. She did it because it was an economical thing to do. In both accounts, that's no longer true. It's much less expensive--in terms of both money and time--to buy clothes off the rack or online than it is to sew them. Often, the price of a pattern, not even including the cost of fabric, can be double the cost of a shirt from a store.
Growing, canning, and caring for a vegetable garden is not a cost-saving hobby, even if you love it. There are a lot of good reasons to grow your own produce, but time and cost-efficiency really can't be a part of your equation.
I live in Southern California. My yard is probably smaller than my parents' vegetable garden. I don't have a neighboring dairy farm, nor do I own dump truck that I can use to haul free fertilizer from the farm. On the other hand, my home never reeks of dairy-air. I don't collect my milk in giant pickle jars. I've never chased chickens or collected eggs. My cow has never gotten loose (I don't have a cow, nor do any of my neighbors.) Nor have I ever slaughtered one of my pets for food. It's a very different world from the one where I was raised.
I couldn't have predicted this life, because so much of it was beyond my imagination. Self-published books? Phones we carry in our pockets that can play music, take pictures, provide endless streams of up to the minute news and information, and keep us in touch with our loved ones on the other side of the world?
So, no. My life didn't go as I had thought it would because so much has been a happy surprise. Even so, sometimes I still get homesick, especially this time of the year when the raspberries would be in season and the cherry trees would be dropping their fruit for free.
When those nostalgic yearnings for a simpler life hit, I remind myself of this passage in Philippians 3:13 "but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead."
How is your life different from what you planned? What happy surprises lie in our futures?
It's so easy to get stuck. Stuck in our expectations, stuck in unhealthy habits, stuck in toxic relationships, stuck in thoughts, patterns, and behaviors that no longer serve us. I hope that when you feel stuck, you can pull yourself up and out, reach heavenward, and be like Saint Paul, reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
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