Day to Day

For Thanksgiving, I went away from D Acres to visit my family in Colorado for two whole weeks. I have a new 5 month old neice, Kaia, who is quite a darling, and whom I was excited to meet for the first time. While I was there, she mastered grabbing objects and pulling them into her mouth--in only two weeks! By the end, I was sure she had already gotten bigger. Our thousands of miles of distance only ensures that I will miss so much of her early stages of Kaia development. I can't wait for our next visit.

I've been at D Acres now for a little over a year. In the scheme of the organizations development and history, that's a small span of time. We are entering the 13th year with a focus on Reflection and Service to the Community--looking both inward and outward for further growth and sustainability. As usual, we're taking the Winter months to make plans for events, workshops, and on-site projects. We keep ourselves busy with daily work: animal chores, cooking, construction projects, cleaning, and craftwork. But we're already looking ahead. Having placed our Tree Order with FEDCO, and recieved the 2010 seed catalogs, we've got garden plans to make and a new batch of apprentices and intern to get ready for.

In all of this I continue my own personal reflection. I feel like I've still only just begun this D Acres endeavor. With a whole plateful of lists of things to be done, and still more to look forward to, it is clear how one year can feel so insiginificant.

We have one intern working with us right now--he's been here since the beginning of November. He arrived as an apprentice, with limited experience in rural and farm living. In his seven weeks at D Acres, he has progressed in a way that impresses us. His D acres experience has in many ways, been a model experience for what we hope to see when folks participate in this project. It is a day to day, week to week learning. Familiarizing one's self with the tools of work, so that the next day's work becomes more fluid--so that it becomes the way of doing and the way of being at the same time.

I can get severely impatient with my self these days, and wish it all just came a lot easier. It is challenging to step back and realize my need for more knowledge, my lack of practice with a tool, my slowness, my inexperience. Though fully conscious of my stage of development and learning, I am still like a child, living the challenge of fumbling through my lesson, determined to get it right and get it done. There will always be work, and my relationship to it can only progress--move forward.

Time does not stop to sit and reflect with me, and so everything continues. We will celebrate the ringing in of the New Year in a D Acres's Family style, with a Full Moon Potluck, Snowshoe Walk by Moolight, and Open Mic by the woodstove. We hope you will join us on Thursday when festivities kick-off at 6pm, or come by anytime.

If you can't make it out to bring in the new year, please come out January 8th, when we host some of our favorite puppeteers. The Modern Times Theater, along with several other friends and folks, will be performing "The Brand New Same Old Bologna Show"! It will be an evening of "ridiculous music and cardboard variety entertainment." The evening begins at 6:30pm with a potluck, and the show starts at 8pm. Bring a dish and bring a friend!

All the best in this new year--moving forward toward good work.

With warmth,
Regina