This year has brought me many surprises and all of them have involved work and toil. This is I am learning a truism in life. Anything worthy requires time and commitment.
First off was our chickens. It sounded simple. Renovate a shed and order some chickens. We've put off the decision year after year but finally bit the bullet. When the chickens showed up a day old I knew the timeline was ticking to get on with the project. Now that we are nearing the end of the project with the coop and run established it's a little easier to look back at it all with perspective. Watching my kids interact with the animals has been a joy, and seeing what it has added into my own life has been rewarding. Has it taken time away from other things, in some ways yes. But the time I spend walking out in our yard, feeding them, locking them in at night and generally enjoying their presence has been surprisingly fulfilling. Is this not also true of our children? Our culture has tried to make our children a commodity, and the problem is when we begin to remove the humanness from our very kids, we lose touch with a part of our own humanity too. Kids take work, and heartache, and an investment that overwhelms us showing us often how incapable we are of being parents. But it is in the midst of this that we also catch a glimpse of other things. Belonging, attachment, security and trust. Raising kids is a blessing because in part it changes who we are and forces us to re-imagine the world we are trying to create to enter into one that is living and breathing. This week we get a puppy. Buckle up and brace yourselves!
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AuthorJeremy David Freeman lives in Minnesota with his wife Sarah. They have six kids (Adelynn, Peter, Benjamin, Paul, Mark and Samuel) and together enjoy the simple things of life: gardening, writing, sewing, baking and woodworking. Archives
April 2024
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