I provided a “little lunch” of winter squash and beets roasted in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a hearty garlic-rosemary meatloaf for the garlic-planting-hungry guys.    

Here’s a short talk that I gave last week at the Buffalo United Methodist Church in was a very moving service entitled “Solidarity: We Are All In This Together.”  

Sometimes it’s easy to overlook and devalue the service we are already providing.  In our culture success is often measured by the perceived status of work we do and the amount of money earned.  I have not “fit the pattern” in pretty much everything that I have done, and that has tempted me to dismiss my gifts and work as not very valuable, implying – to myself – that in some way I have failed – and fallen short.  

Being the daughter and granddaughter of “farmer’s wives” I have bristled at that title and what it implies: a life of endless – not to mention unglamorous – work of gardening, cooking, cleaning, more dirt and mud and manure – and gardening, cooking, cleaning over and over again. After high school I could not wait to leave the farm and small town culture in which I grew up.  I went on to live in Minneapolis, San Francisco, Boston, and then Houston.  I was driven both by my passion for music and performing and a deep urge to find out who I was in a world where no none knew me nor my family, without my perceived confines of the community where I grew up.  Yet, here I am.  Fourth generation on my family farm.  It is still tempting for me to dismiss what I do as trite or unimportant.  Poor me.  Stuck in that female familial pattern.  

BUT – I do love the land.  I do love the open fields and woods and animals.  I do love my family and the interconnected, multi-faceted dance we choreograph together daily.  And I love good, natural food and creating a home that is colorful and creative and inviting.  Come over for dinner.  I will serve you a chicken I’ve roasted in my grandmother’s pan.  The chicken was grown a few miles away in a humane and dignified way.  I feel good about that.  I will serve up Jerry’s hand crafted gourmet garlic, roasted, or maybe in a salad.  I may use our roasted tomato sauce, brimming with our peppers, onions, maybe some eggplant.  You are forewarned: I like it a bit spicy.  Those are our potatoes.  We tried some blue ones as well as red this year.  

I love to let you know about my father’s years of conservation practices on this land which he began in the 1940’s. He started contour farming on this hilly property, despite the neighbors grumblings that ‘that crazy Kreitlow boy was going to be the ruination of his family farm.” These practices keep building topsoil, and I’ve got the arieal photos to prove it.   I’m happy when I hear that you have enjoyed walking and swimming and picnicing in the Wright County parks – knowing that my Dad was one of the founding leaders, and worked hard to acquire land for future generations when locals fought against such a preposterous notion.  And I am deeply touched and satisfied that my husband moved up here with me from Texas, letting go of his college teaching career to reinvent himself on this farm, and that the rotational grazing system that he has put in place for our neighbor’s heifers is growing thick, lush grasses, and every time I see those girls out grazing it feels really, really good and right.  The Creator is being honored here.

I think that in living out our true values we are of service – to ourselves and the blueprint Spirit instilled in us when we were born.  We then can be in service to others in a way that is not about martyrdom, but is healthy and refreshing.  Oh, believe me, I still lose my balance at times.  God has also given me not just musical gifts, but the ability to become a raging whacko when I am not using all parts of me as He intended.  We have a voice within that tells us what we need to give, how much to give, and when we need to receive and replenish.

I make those meals most everyday.  I care about nutrition, and wholeness, and connection to the land.  I care about beauty and expression.  I care about my own happiness and fulfillment.  I don’t believe that service to others means depriving ourselves.  I do believe that we must recognize the value of what we are already doing to stay centered and energized and, yes, happy.  I know that God has given you many gifts unique to you, and that you are already giving in some way that is beyond measure.  

Acknowledge yourself for what those gifts are.  Celebrate the fact that you are a loving, giving, generous person.  Please, take care of yourself.  Then your heart will tell you what the next step is.  And we will all go forth with greater joy and fulfillment.  And so I say, hallelujah!