Today at church the message was on keeping sight of the goal (Jesus, rightousness) and it fit in well with what I have been thinking these past days since the election. With everything happening from the economy imploding and the banks taking over more and more through bail outs and power grabbing and the election I keep getting caught up in worrying about what we are facing, essentially a socialist country to live in whether we like it or not, it's easy to worry and panic but in the end the only conclusion I can come to is that I cannot fix the problem, I cannot hide, I cannot run, I can't prepare enough on my own, there is only one way this mess is going to be reversed and that is through Jesus Christ and His work through me and others. Of course that thought must lead to the conclusion that whatever comes between me and the Savior and that takes my eyes from Him is fuel for my own destruction and the destruction of this nation. Without Jesus we have no hope. Any work I might do to make my life better in the future is a waste of time unless I am working at that through the will and purpose of Christ and with Him at the beginning and end of it. Life gets so much simpler when I view it in this way, stress seems to melt away because I know what direction to go and what to work towards, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
To change the tone, things have come to a screeching halt around here due to winter, or at least that is what I was hoping would happen but it seems like even though I am not working outdoors I still have days that are overflowing and I still have to budget my time with precision, I was hoping for time to relax and do things like long range shooting, music practice instead of a few minutes here and there and, one of my favorite things, sit down and read a whole book cover to cover without stopping, but it seems like there are just too many things I need to do. I can't complain though, I do what I love to do and that's more than most people I know can say. I did sit down the other day over an extended breakfast that turned into an extended lunch and figured out my garden seed order for the year. This last summer I had a very minimal garden, lots of corn and beans and little else so now I am really fired up and ready to go full swing into it this spring. I have decided to spend a little extra money on the project and get all open pollinated seeds this year and I propose to save seed from everything, even the more time intensive things like beets and cabbage and carrots that need two years to mature. This will be an incentive for me to finally get the root cellar finished so I can store all of these things over winter more successfully. Corn is going to be a challenge because I couldn't decide on just one variety, instead I decided on 5 which means I will have to bag and hand pollinate all of my corn this year. Oh well, could be worse, I could be without corn.