I have started FLAMENCO dance lessons. On Tuesday was my second class. Its hard but so much fun. It is a very technical dance form and it has a structure. It got me to thinking about how this relates to other things in my life, especially the farm.
I realized that I actually like doing things that are hard, not for the feint of heart. After over 15 years of farming I am still practicing, still learning, still improving, still facing challenges. That is what appeals to me. I don't ever want to think that I know it all, that I can't improve, have mastered it.
Whats wonderous to behold is that when you do something for a long time, keep at it, you look behind you and see the structure that it has become. It has taken on a form, a shape. Something that is real and tangible. Your thought, dream, idea has been manifest.
Now that it has a consistency and a shape you can manipulate it, play with it, change it back if you wish. Its kind of like baking a cake. You want a cake but now you have to get all the ingredients together and get it to become a cake. Then you can start to decorate it, the fun part !!
The challenges are just that, challenges. They force you to "think" and out of that thinking process come ideas, opportunities and solutions. At 20 years of age I never could have imagined how my life was going to look at 54, the only thing "I" knew was that I liked challenges and wanted to be involved in something that would make me think for myself and present me with an arena to practice, learn and improve on my dream.
The farm now has an energy and life force of its' own as it draws people from all over the world to come and participate in its' growth. There is a real "hunger" for being in a place that "allows" you time to think and contemplate your dreams. It is shocking to me how many young people come here and tell us that they have never experienced enough "unstructured, unsupervised, downtime" to contemplate on their own thoughts, dreams and ideas.
It makes me very happy that the farm has become this kind of place, a kind of refuge and school for ideas and dreams to become manifest. This is the part that has surprised me the most and it has shown me how when you give form to something it will eventually begin to "live" on its' own and show you what it has in mind. It has opened ever greater doors for us and all who journey through.
Your dancing steward,
Barbara :-)))))
