When I can’t fit my thoughts in my regular newsletter, I come here to ramble, sometimes even eloquently. As a jack-of-all-trades type, the topics vary greatly. You’ll find stories behind my paintings, short stories and essays on anything from agriculture to intentional living to cultural issues. If you don’t like one post, maybe don’t give up until you’ve tasted a few.
Often, I’m mentally chewing on some big things and just want to send my thoughts out to the void, secretly hoping for some solidarity.
Always, I strive to filter these thoughts through a sieve built with love.
Thoughts, updates, stories…
With Love, Elli
The Way We’ve Always Done It
Once there was island nation called Potamus, where the trees grew short and stout and the residents lived on seaweed. The island was volcanic, and frequent eruptions of hot gas singed the treetops and forced the rain forest to grow out rather than up. The volcano was only middle-aged and mostly friendly. It still lay low in the center of the island rather than a mountain looming high over it. It would remain so for centuries to come for it was content to bubble and puff rather than build itself up with lava at the cost of destruction of life on the ring of land.
The creatures who lived on Potamus were gray and bulbus, with long tubular noses.
On Stewardship, Slowness and Connection
Remaining disconnected from broken humans and animals that know a thousand ways to die may seem the easier route, but it’s infinitely less satisfying. Much like the health benefits from choosing regenerative farming, choosing to make disciples comes with incalculable benefits, life abundantly. We can all sit and remain “blissfully ignorant” consumers. I won’t pretend that there isn’t pain in watching an addict relapse or a child struggle in an incredibly difficult home. I won’t pretend that it’s easy to encounter my own flesh as we plow, sow and harvest alongside other believers. But friends, the growth and joy and drawing deep into Jesus is more bliss than any ignorance can pretend to give.
Winter (dis)Contentment - You can’t hygge without gratefulness.
Isn’t it just like us humans? We work hard and play hard all summer long. On a farm, that means watering, weeding, rotating pastures, and turning compost in between trips to the river. And for what? So we have nutritious food to eat all winter long and have supplies for beautiful handmade goods over cheap imitations. By the time Autumn comes, most of us gardeners and farmers are worn out enough to appreciate the first frosts as a signal to slow down. Somewhere inside, we know we need the rest. And yet we are quick to loathe the season for it.
Welcome to the USA, Land of Comfort
Welcome to America, the land of Comfort. Or, more precisely: welcome to America, the nation that worships Comfort.
Wait- America is a Christian nation, you say, founded by Christians. Well, friend, let’s chat.
Fellowship; A Short Story
Tony growled a little and then acquiesced, "Okay." He laid the extra oars down along the hull of his boat and picked up one of his normal ones. He nodded at me to pick up one of mine. We each rowed with one oar, still breasted up. As the day wore on, so did I. I refused to admit it though, and rowed with all my might. We spoke little, which should have been a glaring alarm for me that something was wrong. But I poured all of my mental and physical strength into rowing, two hands on one oar, and I still grew more sluggish by the hour.
Darkness fell. Even though I couldn't see straight, I kept telling myself I'd be back to normal in the morning. When I finally lay down in my berth, the relief my body felt morphed quickly into gratefulness for Tony. Who knows where I would have ended up without his knowing friendship. That realization was the last thing I remembered before drifting off.
I can foggily recall two things from the days that followed…
Women’s Work
“God’s design for gender was and is perfect. Men and women are equally valuable, differently made beings for a purpose. But I believe this is another situation in which we think to “small-ly” of God. I have no argument with “Christ is the head of man and man is the head of woman” and I have no issue with the word submission. This is not about whether or not women should lead in certain areas or speak in church. This is about the battle field. Forget the semantics, politics and appearances. Those matter little when you’re in the thick of warfare...
When women pick up the armor God gave to every believer and own their identity as daughter and servant of the King,darkness shakes,beasts are slain,and lives are saved from the enemy.It is not by our own power or wisdom or any device of woman; it is by the strength of His might.
Every woman is different and I don’t want to make generalizations but each woman has passion, cares, strengths and eyes that see differently than the man next to her. There are people that need our touch. There are hearts that need our eyes to see. There are voices that need our ears to hear.”
Are there Hobbits in Christianity?
Despite having so many projects, deadlines to make and our main school lessons to finish for the year, I can’t help but continue to work on my novel. Even if I’m not putting more words on the page, the characters and their stories are growing in my silly brain. Right now, I’m staring the action scenes in the face so I’ve been reading other novels to give that time to develop. Right now I’m over halfway through Tolkien’s Return of the King.
It’s been a while since I’ve read the Lord of the Rings. And as it should be I’ve learned so much since then, but particularly about spiritual warfare. Tolkien loathed direct allegory, but did love to use symbolism creatively in his works. I can’t even tell you how much beauty and truth I’m finding in it and some of it strikes me so hard and so deep. Why am I telling you this? Because I have a couple of thoughts ignited by my recent reading that I wanted to chat with you guys about, even ask you about. But I wanted to assure you that I’m not going to talk about LOTR forever! I’ll do a couple of posts this week and try (my very best) to be done for the time being. But don’t be afraid to shoot me an e-mail (or reach out on social media) and continue the conversation!
