The Kingdom of God

“The Kingdom of God is within/among you” Luke 17:21

“Jesus himself goes into silence, into nature, and usually alone when he prays” Richard Rohr

I’ve been going into our field to sit in the goose blind lately. Usually alone. Funny thing, it is too early in the year for the geese to be flying over the Palouse with any regularity. That doesn’t seem to matter much. I just like to sit in a frozen field alone and watch the sun rise. Sitting with a shotgun on my lap just seems like a good excuse to be out there. I wake up at four or five and start getting the animal chores done. The sun doesn’t really rise until 6:45 am.

The sun rising on these cold December mornings is glorious. It is still and quiet. And I try to be still and quiet too. Both externally and internally. “Be still and know that I am God.” When I’m in a good place spiritually, I can sometimes get there. Sometimes I can let the clutter in my mind slowly pass leaving me at peace and alone with my God.

I wanted to go steelhead fishing alone today. Turns out the section of river I was thinking of is partially iced over. That’s OK. I have a ton of chores to do today. We are getting a ton (literally, 2000 pounds) of alfalfa delivered on Saturday morning.

I will be applying for a “small herd exemption” to sell raw milk here in Idaho soon. We don’t really have enough does in milk to make it worth the trouble…yet. We plan to get a diary cow in the spring. We also will be breeding Carissima soon. We will be hoping for a couple of doelings when she gives birth. We already have more milk than we need, but any additions to the herd will put us way over the top. It could be a nice addition to our tight finances. On the other hand it could be another farm fiasco too. Never know until you try. That’s one of the things I love about our approach to life on the farm here. Leap before you look. Half the time it doesn’t work out the way we had planned. But on the other hand, we are having a great time trying and learning along the way. We may never get it right within this lifetime but that is not the point. The kingdom of God is here and now among us. We are indeed blessed.

Yours in faith, Russ