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Outpost of Your Own:  Tell us about your "Inner Outpost"  |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 14 2008 : 6:46:27 PM
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A couple of years ago I read a book called Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. It's a great book, especially for those of us who aspire to the writing life, but one particular passage has stayed with me and warrants passing along. Fun and fruitful food for thought...
“Every single one of us at birth is given an emotional acre all our own. You get one, your awful Uncle Phil gets one, I get one, Tricia Nixon gets one, everyone gets one. And as long as you don't hurt anyone, you really get to do with your acre as you please. You can plant fruit trees or flowers or alphabetized rows of vegetables, or nothing at all. If you want your acre to look like a giant garage sale, or an auto-wrecking yard, that's what you get to do with it. There's a fence around your acre, though, with a gate, and if people keep coming onto your land and sliming it or trying to get you to do what they think is right, you get to ask them to leave. And they have to go, because this is your acre.”
In the spirit of MaryJane's Outpost, we might refer to our acres as “outposts.” These are our own internal refuges from the rest of the world, our centers, places we can go to get away from it all.
Let's explore the terrain of our inner outposts. Here are some ideas to ponder:
What does your acre look like?
Is it hilly, flat, forested, or clear?
How's the view?
What are you growing?
Is it spartan or spangled (any cute 'n kitschy lawn ornaments)?
Is it neatly mowed or unruly? Cultivated or wild?
Is your fence high, barbed, whitewashed, or rough hewn?
Who do you let in? Who do you boot out?
Anything goes!
Jen
Farmgirl Sisterhood Member #9
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Edited by - Jen on Jan 14 2008 6:56:42 PM |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Jan 19 2008 : 08:52:37 AM
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Ok, I'm finally getting around to my inner outpost...hmmm....
What does your acre look like?
On the best days, it's a wee little oasis of neatly tended gardens and orchards. No lawn landscaping other than what nature intended, and no flowers that aren't wild. And a fish-full river that flows like the Skykomish or Bitterroot or Current. The sky overhead is sunny blue with a few cotton candy clouds. Wildlife galore. One good dog. Two happy cats. Maybe a horse - draft. And my house is a little cottage built of stone and cedar, as if part of the hillside, neat & tidy, but full of books and eclectic treasures from all over the world.
Is it hilly, flat, forested, or clear?
hilly for sure; clear around the house; surrounded by big, vast forest
How's the view?
vast and wild
What are you growing?
fruits and veggies, hope and dreams
Is it spartan or spangled (any cute 'n kitschy lawn ornaments)?
lots of handmade birdhouses & feeders, maybe one neat set of wind chimes, a good chair, and a stone fire pit, some crazy cool sculptures-in-progress
Is it neatly mowed or unruly? Cultivated or wild?
cultivated in the midst of woolly wild
Is your fence high, barbed, whitewashed, or rough hewn?
most days it's a rough split rail - more bark than bite, but it does the job....and it's got big salmon swimming along it (wooden ones that i painted)
Who do you let in? Who do you boot out?
I'm pretty protective of my border in my "old" age. I'll chat at the gate with just about anybody, but those I invite inside strike me as genuine - they look me in the eye and talk straight. A sense of humor is a MUST. Who gets the boot? Liars, users, petty mean pushy people, and the like.
So? How about yours??
Jen
Farmgirl Sisterhood Member #9
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Edited by - Jen on Jan 19 2008 08:56:58 AM |
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Outpost of Your Own: Tell us about your "Inner Outpost" |
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Tell us about your "Inner Outpost"
