our garden

So, we have a garden. Living without one has been kinda rough, ever since I left the farm, so it's really nice to have one. We're growing yellow squash, zucchini, watermelon, carrots, broccoli, basil, cilantro and flowers (from seed) and onions, tomatoes and eggplant from seedlings. Each morning, after kissing my wife, I seriously cannot wait to go outside and empty our french press, because that gives me an excuse to check on (speak tenderly to) our plants. Saturdays are the best, of course, because I don't have to rush this. And about life being hard without farming...well, it's hard to describe, but farming has meant a lot to me...I'd even say it changed my life. There's something about having my hands in the dirt, busting my back to pull out weeds, tasting a tomato that would convert a diehard tomatophobe...I could do this the rest of my life. Maybe I will.

-Dan

lent

this year, dan and i are celebrating lent. in the past i have done some sort of fast and little celebration but this year, thanks to erin, we are taking another step in our celebration. first, we went to an ash wednesday service and for the first time i had ashes on my head. second, we gave up something that we actually miss and therefore think about Christ more. and third, we are reading a daily devotion together about lent. i especially liked today's:
"Life is a long journey of preparation- of preparing oneself to truly die for others. It is a series of little deaths in which we are asked to release many forms of clinging and to more increasingly from needing others to living for them. The many passages we have to make as we grow from childhood to adolescence, from adolescence to adulthood, and from adulthood to old age offer ever-new opportunities to choose for ourselves or to choose for others. During these passages, questions such as Do I desire power or service; do I want to be visible or remain hidden; do I strive for a successful career or do I keep following my vocation? keep coming up and confront us with hard choices. In this sense, we can speak about life as a long process of dying to self, so that we will be able to live in the joy of God." -Henri J Nouwen, Beyond the Mirror: Reflections on Death and Life.

-mary

step one

(step one is to write your first post after you have created your site.) step one intimidates me. so here it is -our first post on our blog. i have a love-hate relationship with blogs. i love my friend's blogs and am terrible at keeping one myself. my friend grete has never let me get away with just forgetting that i too can have a blog. so dan and i have started one. we hope to keep it up the whole time we are in zimbabwe so that you will know what we are doing and thinking. so here's to hoping...

-mary