Sunshinier Days

I'm at my little brother's baseball game. It's raining. I'm wet. I'm by myself. When the earth is gloomy, my attitude towards the earth is gloomy. It's the pits.

Sometimes, I feel really stupid because when I let my heart get all gloomy like that, I let a bunch of silly, pointless stuff get to my head. My big brother calls me a head case. Sometimes, I think we are all kind of similar, at least that is my hope. I think we are all heartbroken about something. Or embarrassed, ashamed, confused or misled about something. On gloomy days like this, I think it consumes us. It should not. We're all in this together. Even though there are rainy days, there are also sunshiney ones on their way to mend you. And with that, I just found a penny, heads up! In God, and in Abe Lincoln, and in sunshinier days, we trust.

Anyways, even though it's gloomy here by myself in the rain, it's still pretty nice.

Here's a story of a weekend that once turned my frown upside down!

Abby suggested that we sign up for a pottery class. A few minutes of research, $30, and a quick phone call later and we were well on our way to being crafty nyurgs for a day. We went to Funke Fired Arts and we cannot wait to go back. They provide all the necessary materials, including cute aprons with ducks on them, and they fire your pots for you (in the color of your choice) to pick them up a couple weeks after the session.

So the next day, we visited a very dear friend's farm. Jerry is our "Cincinnati Grandpa." He was Abby's Alternative Break leader, he is a retired professor, and he is in charge of Nexus Gardens at Xavier, which is where Abby and I have our little garden plot. He had been inviting us out to see his farm for a long time before we finally found a good time to meet for the day.

I could attempt to write paragraphs about what it was like, but it would not do any of it justice. Instead you get a...

Perks of Jerry's Farm List
Personalized tour of the farm
Home-built baseball field and tennis court
Amish furniture
Warm home-made bread straight from the bread oven
Hand-picked asparagus and salad
Home-made granola, wine, honey, and lemonade
Compost
Herb garden
Oven/stove/pots/pans passed down from family
Piano
Collection of little trinkets from all over the world
Meat and cheese from the Farmer's Market
Bruschetta!
Oh yeah, he built/designed it all himself, entire house and all (he even showed us his original handwritten layouts)

It's safe to say that Jerry knows how to live and how to treat the world. When we were complimenting his lifestyle and wishing we lived the same, he would just simply say, "I like to go easy on the earth." Right when we were leaving, we thanked him and tried to make plans to come back soon. After admiring his house one last time, he said (I wrote it down because I liked it so much), "It is simple, but it is comfortable. And that's what voluntary simplicity is all about."

There is a lot to be learned, youngins. Every so often, we all just need some perspective. And then the gloomy days aren't bad at all.