Bringing it Home (from Joe)

In an effort to gain wisdom from past staff members and the ways they have been affected by the Farm I asked people to reflect on how they have brought the farm how after spending at least a year on staff. Our first response comes from Joe Ciesielski who was on staff August 2007-August 2008. Joe now teaches in Philadelphia. Here's what he has to say...

Hey Mike,

So I listen to a lot of NPR on my drive to work. On the local station they have a psychologist who just received an award for in Taiwan. He was talking about how life-changing this experience was for him. He was struck by how much kindness was shown to him and how he wanted to be more aware of kindness in his life, of showing kindness to other and being thankful for kindness shown to him. He wanted to do a better job of not passing judgment on individuals (which I'm sure is really difficult as a psychologist). The key to making changes in your life, such as the ones he was trying to make, is to set small, measurable goals. "I'm going to try to be aware of kindness and not passing judgment" is an attainable goal while "I'm going to be a better person," he says, is easy to let slide. You have nothing to hold yourself accountable. The mind always gravitates towards whats comfortable, so if you don't set yourself up for success by setting small, attainable goals, it's going to be very easy to let them slide away.

This has been very true in my life. When I was at the Farm, I knew that one of the things I wanted to do was keep up with relationships with those I loved in Baltimore, Philly and West "by God." So I set a goal for myself of writing a letter or a note to some one every day for the 40 days of Lent. Now, did I write one every day - heck no. But I did feel really good about staying in touch with people and growing in my relationships. But when I left WV, I didn't set a goal like that for myself. So I started a new job, got a new car, bought (actually am buying) a house, and I let those relationships that I had nurtured slide.

But it ain't all bad. One of the things I wanted to do was incorporate simplicity in what I am consuming. So I set goals for being more aware of where my food was coming from, cooking more myself and growing some. I joined a food co-op that gets all it's food from local farmers, and members can even help grow some of it, made some delicious dishes and have a few tomato plants that look pretty good so far.

There is always room for improvement and there always should be. I can build off these small success and take this aspect of simplicity to the next level. But you have set goals for yourself and set yourself up for success and keep people around you who can hold you accountable.

Cornerstones: Calling us to Balance

Growing up my faith was very much about my own personal experience and development, it wasn't very well connected to service. Sure in high school I was very involved in community service, but it was for my own benefit not the benefit of those I was serving or even to serve God. I did community service because it helped me feel good about myself, like I was doing something good for the world and that built me up. I found satisfaction in the compliments and encouragement of others and that fueled me to stay involved in service activities so that others would continue to think highly of myself. Looking back on this I realize that my faith life was very skewed towards myself.

As life went on I continued to stay involved in community service because it was something that brought me satisfaction and it wasn't until I was finishing college and working here in West Virginia that I realized it really isn't about me. Nor do I have the abilities to really "help people" in a way that will completely change their life. However, I do have the ability to share love with those around me, to let them know that despite whatever situation they are in they have inherent dignity and deserve to be treated the same way I am treated. That is what I believe God calls us all to do, to love one another.

This calling to love one another is our calling to serve and be served. However, I believe that can bring another challenge, that we become too wrapped up in doing service and become lacking in our personal faith. Having grown up in one extreme, I now find myself at the complete other end of the spectrum, enthralled in service and unable to really find a balance between personal faith and service. This is where the cornerstones come in... while I may not feel all that balanced the cornerstones call us to this balance. Turning our focus on prayer and simplicity calls us to look inside ourselves, to see how we express our faith, how we live our lives as a prayer, and what we are really focused on in our lives. Then community and service call us outward, to look at those around us and how we can work for the common good and human dignity.

This week take some time and reflect on how this balance is in your life, are you too enveloped in your personal faith? Do you do service because it brings you gratification or because you seek to love others? Are you able to connect the two (faith and service)? How do you (or could you) achieve that balance?

Prayer: Nature and Fireflies

Everybody needs a week off once in a while, right?

Here's our newest post, courtesy of Julie Schneider. Enjoy.

As the bugs begin to pester and the fireflies light up the hillside, I am reminded of how alive the earth becomes as summer arrives. We are surrounded with colorful wildflowers popping up in every corner, the babbling sound of our creek, the singing birds in the morning, the sun shining longer, and the season of many crops. There is much to be thankful for as we journey through a summer of beauty and life.
One thing that excites me the most at this time, in this place is the nightly presentation in the trees.
Growing up, my neighbor’s brothers, sisters and I would get a big kick out of catching lightning bugs. We would poke many holes in the lid of a jar, fill it up with some grass, and trap some bugs there for a while. It was exhilarating to catch one in between my hands and show my mom how many I got. Most of the time, we would forget about them and leave them in the jar to slowly pass away. I didn’t realize that was a mean thing to do. Regardless, to me, lighting bugs were the coolest creatures on earth and the mystery behind their little glow blew my mind.
Over time, I suppose I lost sight of lightning bugs and stopped noticing them.
When I moved to West Virginia and saw the glimmer in the hills for the first time, I realized once again how much I still get a kick of them. I also discovered how amazing they really are. Last summer, I was introduced to some of the best spots to watch them on our holler, where there isn’t any light to glare out the glowing show.
It’s incredible to witness how spectacular the hillside becomes when it’s flooded with thousands of mini sparkling bugs. As I find myself staring quite a bit lately, I also find myself in prayer with God, wondering how nature could put on such a good show. I wonder if God knew how cool this was, and I quickly realized that maybe God was asking me the same question. Do you see as God sees?
Perhaps, we are always surrounded by God in nature, not just with the amazement of fireflies, but with all living creatures and plants. As we journey through this summer, let us always be mindful of the things we encounter that both annoy us and astound us. Maybe God is present everywhere, and if we allow ourselves to see as God sees, we won’t find it too difficult to be amazed!