Reaching Out

Like a woman who has given birth and whose life suddenly narrows to a devoted, single-minded spotlight upon her newborn baby, I have let this farm become my all-consuming focus over the past two years.

Immersed in this enormous lifestyle change, I've let many of my friendships slide into neglect, even while lamenting the isolation and loneliness of living on the farm day after day.

It's stupid, really. With the internet so handy, it's ridiculous that people I genuinely love should have to wait a year or more between emails from me. No wonder I feel isolated... I've been a terrible friend!

I plan to remedy that in the coming days. I want to make my way through my address book, to send email messages saying "Hi," to all those folks I've been missing. At least now that I have this blog, catching people up on what I've been doing lately will be easy!

I envy the people to whom reaching out to others comes naturally. I can imagine what it would be like to be that kind of person, because I'll reach out just that easily to any cat, dog, horse, or other critter I meet. But with people, it's harder. It takes conscious effort, and a bit of psyching myself up. I guess that's what this post is about.

I love my farm, but I don't want it to be the ONLY thing in my life any more. It's time to reach out!