This Project is for My Babies

To my children, 

This is a gift from me to you. It is my heart, my soul in writing for you to seek comfort and wisdom in whenever you might need to. Life is unpredictable, challenging, exciting, and full of twists and turns. I don’t know where we will be in 20 years, 5 years, or even 5 hours, and I want you to have some of the inner workings of my mind and the lessons from my life experiences with you, in case they might ever help you. 

So I am writing this for you. And for your children. And theirs as well. The year is 2024 and the world looks more lost than ever before. There are horrible wars around the world, children are suffering, and people are thirsty and starving as the rest of humanity watches in high definition. And most of the people that do have food, water, and relative safety are suffering spiritually. There is rampant depression, anxiety, jealousy, hopelessness, as we get lost in the deep darkness of materialism and comparison. Life today demands that we put distance between ourselves and the miracles ever present in this world.

But there is hope. There is always hope. Where there is darkness, there is light. Where there is death, there is rebirth. Where there is destruction, there is growth. I find the most hope in the beautiful, natural canvas around me. I’m not sure you’ll remember this, but every morning we look out the window and watch the sunrise to see God’s painting. We comment on the colors used, the brushstrokes that we can see (usually they look like clouds), and how breathtaking and humbling it all is as a new day emerges. 

In the garden, as well, every seed we plant in the ground also represents hope. You can find it in every emerging sprout, shooting its roots down for water, minerals, and a secure footing, while at the same time stretching its fragile seed leaves as high as they can go to absorb and metabolize air and light. Every time I plant a seed, I stop and think about how much hope I have for that tiny bit of potential life. From those seeds, as well as from the wild mushroom spores in the forest, as well as from the hard work of our neighbors raising animals, we’re able to feed our family very, very well. 

My loves, I want to note to you that we are quite lucky. Our lives don’t look like everyone else’s, and sometimes it might seem like we do things the harder way, but for your dad and I, the effort is worth the reward. We live in a pretty small house, but you know what they say about small houses (fewer walls to separate us). We don’t have a lot of land, but what we have is fertile and bathed in sunlight all day. We are surrounded by forests full of gifts — mushrooms and blueberries, lingonberries, spruce tips, elder trees, and clean air. Who knows if we’ll be here forever, but for now, we are blessed by bounty and beauty. It’s something that shouldn’t be taken for granted, and it’s my effort with this project to do justice to these gifts. 

Use this project when you need a taste of home, or when you want to remember the smell of the sweet air up on that hilltop. If your lives have taken you down a different path and you want to remember what your childhood days looked like, I sincerely hope these words will help you. 

I love you profoundly. 

Love, 

Mommy