Just like Carmon, I’m an agrarian sympathizer. But unlike Carmon, my capitalistic thinking needs a little twitching (that would be, uh, tweaking) before I can join the club. Many of you probably don’t know that I have agrarian aspirations, but I see it more as a means to accomplish other things that I consider valuable rather than just a goal in itself. I know that my thinking will change and mature as I (hopefully) grow in my understanding of it. Be easy on the novice.

When I began this site, the purpose was to keep in touch with family and friends while we were disconnected briefly from our conservative brotherhood. Yep, we were in California. While I’ve enjoyed meeting lots of people and even beginning new real-life friendships because of being online, it still presents a difficulty in saying all that I want to say. I did not know that other people would be interested in stopping by this little corner on the web, as I had not ever read another blog before my own. (This is a true story.)

This means that now I must write with discretion and with reservation. People who know me in real life know that the way I talk online is magnified to the tenth power in real life. That is to say, perhaps my use of discretion online would be better put to use in real life. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to practice my apologies in like manner as Anne Shirley.

I do not mind switching courses, and as I’ve pondered my time online here, I consider it still an appropriate use of my energy, even though the initial purpose has changed. When my responsibilities are such that it requires that I spend less time thinking to and amusing myself, I will close the site and not look back. Or if I humorously fall on my face in an attempt to save the day and my husband doesn’t continue to say, “Blog that,” then I will likewise shut down the site. Or if there is a better way to glorify God in the time that it takes to type this (at about 40 wpm), then I will do that.

Now, before this turns into naval-gazing, I’d like to connect the first paragraph with what I set out to say. Both my husband and I have agrarian aspirations for a couple reasons. I’d like to explain our thinking process, as there are still real life family and friends who read this site. (Though they will not admit this publicly by making a comment, I hear that I haven’t yet mortified anyone.) Another reason I’d like to think aloud through this is because it is easier to see flaws in our own process and motivations by breaking it down into parts. I think this might be valuable to our children in the future, and the analysis is good for our own future forward movements in the direction.

I received good advice from Rick Saenz when I lamented, “But how?!” in response to his series on Simple Living. He replied something like, “Take little steps. Just keep taking them in that direction.” This is akin to Elisabeth Elliot’s famous advice to, “Just do the next thing.” In the coming weeks, I’d like to think through some of these steps aloud, but I won’t necessarily do it in order. I’ll file all the posts under Living Simple.