settle

I was not raised by settlers. Both of my parents have lived a lot of different places; even just in the last few years. So have my brother and sister. From tropical islands, to the desert, to mountain-ringed college towns; my people are spread out. And they tend to keep moving. Luckily for me, they have always chosen places I love to visit.



I've never lived anywhere for more than 6 years at a time, and while that doesn't seem particularly nomatic, I still think of myself as someone who can pack up, pick up, and put down - planting a new life in a new town with a new perspective. My circuit has been small - minus a three month stint in the Caribean - each town I've lived in is within a few hundred miles of the next one.

From my driveway in Beaverhead County, I look up at the west side of the Tobacco Root Mountains, but as a kid growing up in Bozeman I knew the outline of their eastern side.



While these moves have made me more adaptable and self-reliant, creating a new 'home' can be difficult. It is important to me to feel like I'm part of a community. Even traveling in foreign countries, I have an urge to belong, to really know a place, to know its people, its rhythms.

It is a basic thing, I think, to want to feel connected to the people around us. To feel invested in the place we live.

The other day my dad sent me and email with this piece of a poem;

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees under
whose shade you do not expect to sit-"
Nelson Henderson



So this all leads me to the original point of this post, which is to say that I'm beginning to feel very a home in my newest setting. I'm beginnning to feel like I have a tribe of friends to call for support, favors, sharing ideas or bits of our days. I feel like I'm finally doing something I've wanted to do for a long time, by growing and selling at the farmers market. I'm excited about things to come; both in new friendships, and new adventures in farming.





I'm looking forward to the changing schedule of our days, too, as Amelia goes back to preschool three mornings a week, and both girls begin dance classes. They are changing so quickly. The other evening we went to the playground and instead of Aven's usual requests to catch me, mama, or help me, mama, little sister wants to do it all by herself. And she did. Even the fast slide.



And we have baby swallows in the barn. It is sort of irrelevant to anything I've said, but it makes me really happy.


Happy weekending out there!