In this first post under “life in the Farm Lane.” I thought it best to give you an essence of what I am referring to when I say, ‘farm lane’. Perhaps I should step back even more, and say at this point and time, I am NOT a farmer by any stretch of the imagination. What I am is an old woman (okay, maybe not that old, well, I guess it depends on who you ask), who is kind of hard of hearing when God begins to direct me in a direction that I am sure He is mistaken about.  I mean, seriously, I know myself so much better than God knows me, right? (insert sarcasm here).

God has made it very clear to me that I am to use the resources He has given me to connect with my neighbors.  Like, my actual neighbors. I did not grow up in an environment like that.  I was a latchkey kid, with an exhausted mom, and later two parents who had little time to entertain anybody. So, who knows how this will go. Then, because things were not already interesting enough, God is leading me to some sort of community garden project. While I have been on farms, growing things is not my specialty; I mean, I just recently threw away a cactus that I killed. Yeah, don’t ask.

So, in a nutshell, this is what you will find here. A glimpse at the life of a non-entertaining, non-farming oldER woman opening up her home, and planting a few seeds. I am great at planting, by the way, it is the whole growing thing that seems to be my greatest obstacle. As I began to do some research, I came across the term ‘permaculture’, which appears to be somewhat synonymous with ‘lazy gardening’, sign me up for that, please. Gardening, where you don’t have to do as much work, that could be the missing link in my struggles all these years. Seriously, though, permaculture is the way God designed us to garden.  Working with the rest of His creation and not against it.

So, here I am out here on cyberspace, where there is no dirt, water, or sunlight, trying to grow things and connect with people.  Yes, I see the irony in that. 😊This is really just a tool to connect with people where there is dirt, sun, and water…you know, the real world. However, the proper use of technology is an amazing thing. Something else ironic is that I am someone who struggles with using technology too much, and yet God is taking me on this journey, doing things that are not even in my ‘comfort state’, let alone my ‘comfort zone,’ via the internet, which can sometimes bog me down.

So, buckle up, buttercup, and come along with me. If you need some laughs, I truly hope you will find some here. If you need encouragement, I hope you will find a cup or two of that as well. Most importantly, though, if you need prayer or to be reminded that you are not alone, I truly hope you will find that here.

Shalom

Grace & Garden