December 9, 2011
If cold fog encased mornings aren’t good for anything else, they lend themselves to getting a little I keep putting this off writing done. If you are receiving this, it means you are subscribed to either JustLiving In This Landscape, the blog of the JustLiving Farm or Ridged Valley Reflections, the Journal of the Yakama Christian Mission. As of today, the tales, stories, reflections, joys, or just the every day complaining of the Mission and the Farm will be posted at Ridged Valley Reflections (http://wp.me/POlE). If you are subscribed to JustLiving In This Landscape and would like to continue receiving posts please go to http://wp.me/POlE and re-subscribe. If you are receiving Ridged Valley Reflections you don’t need to do a thing.
I imagine you might ask why put the two together? Well, there isn’t a lot of difference between the two. Organizations, whether Farm or Mission, are nothing more than a few buildings, an IRS document, and a few incorporation papers. In other words, they really are nothing. What make them something are the people who use their structures to make a difference in the world. Hopefully a difference that does not hurt creation, enhances joy and love, and embodies peace. In other words, it is people living their lives as they were created which make organizations meaningful. It is in that light the two blogs become one.
People can do nothing more than live life. At best, it is the life they were created to live. Therefore, while much of society has done its best to compartmentalize people lives into the likes of work and play, the reality is one simply lives their life, sometimes working and other times playing.
Having two blogs, one for the Farm and one for the Mission, in essence buys into a construct that life can be and should be compartmentalized—there is the mission, the farm and they have nothing to do with one another. It’s kind of like a pastor having a child and never talking about them because they want to separate their home life from their professional life…it might sound good, it might sound feasible, but vocation is lost in favor of being a professional. Combining the blogs is to not only say this is not true, but also impossible, for family life will always inform work life and work life will always inform family life. In time, this blog should make a fair case for this idea. In time, I expect, you will find the soil of the Farm informs the art of the Mission’s after-school program My Future. In similar fashion, you will find the Mission’s commitment to justice clearly informs the artful practices of the Farm.
Much more could be said, but instead, stay connected and see what comes.
© David B. Bell 2011
Chewing the Cud 