Sometimes I get a chuckle when I think about how others view my lifestyle. I know, I know, I'm "quirky." Ha Ha! I do odd things like growing my own veggies and raise animals for *gasp* food. I dream up plans for manure and spend back breaking hours scooping up wasted hay and straw-just so I can "enrich" my garden. And don't you dare throw out the cold coffee in MY house (that's for the blueberry bushes, dangit!) Yes, I know, "quirky."
But what is funny to me is the "normal" lifestyle. Even more funny is the way I use to embrace that way of living myself. I was wasting so much time, energy, and STUFF. Mountains of stuff have come and gone through the years. And what for? It was here just so I could say I had it. Yep, the gas guzzling minivan, the fancy coffee maker, the drawers full of gadgets, the fresh-off-the-boat-from-China furniture and appliances were all here along with the long hours of working to pay for it. Add in the $4 daily latte and new hairdo every month and you have my wastefulness in a nutshell.
And now? Now I'm proud to have goats...and chickens and guineas and rabbits. I don't have a lot of them (see my profile? I live on one acre!) There isn't any way to fully explain how much those goats mean to me. In my quest to throw off that old way of living, to truly appreciate everything God has blessed me with, to show a frugal responsibility for it all, I've learned so much from having goats. They've provided milk and meat. I know exactly what the meat I am eating contains-the antibiotics that haven't been used, the quality of the raising, the humane way it was butchered, the prayer that was said before the deed. How can I measure the rewards? I. Just. Can't.
So while I'm chuckling at the thought of a turned-up nose by someone who purchases mystery meat at the grocery store, I'm also humbled at the very generosity of a Provider who put me in a place where I have the means and the right to choose my own lifestyle. I know others are less fortunate. They are in my prayers. Which brings me to the point of this long post: Christmas is coming and inevitably someone is going to ask me what I want for a gift. The truth is I have all I want and more. But I would consider myself doubly blessed if someone else could have the joys of a goat (or a chicken, duck, rabbit...) So family and friends, please click and donate here: I wish we all could have a goat, rabbit, chicken, duck...
