January 15th, 2019
Im jumping to present day! Good judgement call? I don't know - probably not but we'll find out. I'm just getting too impatient, big surprise... It's honestly been really encouraging looking back through old pictures and little thoughts I'd written down from 2017-2018 of our adventures and projects. But it's also gotten me intoxicated thinking about 2019! Theres so much emotion involved in being right smack dab in the middle of things - I think thats why its so easy to be so busy doing things and checking things off a "to-do" list but feeling like you haven't really actually done anything! So it's been refreshing to step back from it all and realize how much has been achieved over the past year.
Buying this land and building this house has been one of the most mind mangling things I've experienced. It's challenged me both mentally and physically beyond anything so far but yet I can honestly say it has been just as equally so fun, exciting, and fulfilling! I truly believe we were meant to be challenged, theres something in our inner most being that craves overcoming something difficult and growing from it. Seldom does anything beneficial come from being stagnant - if you saw our pond when we first bought this land you'd see that firsthand. Nasty mushy pea green algae making itself right at home on top of the water - Few were brave enough to swim in the swampy cesspool last summer, I'm surprised none of them grew a tail, formed webbed feet, or developed a set of freaking gills after crawling back out! ...My imagination of the after effects is what kept me out of it!
This property had nothing on it when we bought it. Actually it had less than nothing! Bless the kind old farmer, Rodger, who owned this property before us. He's really a nice guy who you'll find most evenings enjoying an ice-cream cone in town at Bills 1st Stop, in that sense, he's my spirit animal. But he loved to accumulate "things". Thank the LORD for a stand up guy that we've come to really admire, Monte, who came through before we bought the place and cleaned up the majority of everything, tore down the old house, and restored the land back to almost square one or we never would have been able to envision the potential this place could have! That being said, there was still some cleaning up left to do; getting rid of junk scattered about, tilling, tree removal and trimming, fixing large ruts from tractors, restoring the only barn, the list goes on and theres still lots left to do. Can you believe that this is what the place use to look like???
Hard to imagine that this was even the same place! The only thing not in the birds eye is the pergola we built right before winter came.
With all the things we've done out here I've realized the importance of distinguishing the difference between knowledge and wisdom - wisdom is the proper use of knowledge. Knowledge is just a tool. You can be uneducated and wise and you can just as easily be educated and lack wisdom.
"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" —T.S. Eliot
My little messy brain literally does not have enough room for knowledge - thats why I think I struggle to remember what I did yesterday or forget where I set my glasses when they're just sitting on top of my head. Unless I use that knowledge my brain considers it unnecessary and discards it - GRRR! But its crazy how applicable the things that I've just considered "work" or "projects" have been to my life. It didn't matter how many YouTube videos I watched on building and installing a floating bathroom vanity - until I got into it with my own two hands and was able to touch it, feel it, even smell it, actually start engraving it into my brain and senses and use and apply what I had learned on paper - it was just useless knowledge to me. It served me nothing until I used it in the proper way.
With 2019 here its nice to set goals right? I want to accomplish this and that, I want to travel here and there, I want to look like this and feel like that, I want people to remember me in this way... and that's all perfectly fine and dandy and it gives you the warms fuzzy's to daydream about the person you want to be at the end of 2019. Those aspirations are such a helpful tool! But thats all they are - a tool. You can read all the health and wellness books, do all the travel planning, create all the Pinterest boards on how you want to redecorate your living room or landscape around your front porch, listen to all the inspiring self-help podcasts but they aren't going to do jack squat unless they are used and applied. Don't just fantasize about the person you want to be at the end of 2019 - literally be that person today! If it's hard at first and you fail, who cares?! You made progress and you did more that just remain stagnant. Next time you'll hopefully fail better and better again the time after that. You'll never get it perfect. But you'll grow! YAY for being grossly cheesy - and heres some more...
“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” - T.S. Eliot
We are literally capable of so much its insane. Everyone can recall a time when they encountered something they thought they'd never overcome - well guess what. You're still alive, you overcame it, you may never want to do it again, but YOU DID IT! Way to go! We all crave independence and growth but pay little mind to responsibility. When will we realize they work hand-in-hand? Independence without maturity is like a child left alone to wander aimlessly in the woods. I want to encourage everyone, including myself (I need so much help), to USE our knowledge to better ourselves and the people around us and to grow! Knowledge makes a person ignorant - wisdom makes a person humble. Go out and use it because you're freaking amazing and are SO capable!
Okay, I'll calm down... I just get so freaking jazzed thinking about people pursuing their passions and purpose! I want to know what you're doing that you're proud of or are even struggling with and just need some encouragement - I'd love to listen! Seriously message me on Instagram, FB, or text me: 515-443-7846. Encouragement is so important. Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant!
Want To Follow Our Venture?
If you’d like to follow our venture I’d love to see you follow our pages @ThePreludeXII on Facebook and Instagram. I hope to encourage people to not deify common sense and to go all in for their passions and purpose and if this only encourages one single person to do that than it's more than worth it!