Nothing new this year (please!)

Last year Sarah and I sat in an enchanted rural Wisconsin farmhouse and plotted our 2008 Strategic Plan. The central vision was to not change anything, just to deepen existing riches. Then we sold our house, moved to Vancouver Island, left my job/career to become a stay-at-home dad/writer/farmer... Maybe this year we'll do better.

This life change is all so new - moved into this house end of September - that this does not in any way feel like the start of a new year. 2009 will be a time of great learning, solidifying, settling, and most of all, becoming. We will continue on this track of becoming a simple, slow family, creating time to be together as a family and community, learning to farm and homestead, integrating with the Cowichan community, marveling at the blossoming of our children. I will write and follow this path with increasing direction. Sarah will find a beautiful balance of business development and personal/family focus.

By the end of 2009, we will have a clear and deliberate picture of what this new life means. I am continuing to strive to not narrowly define what it must look like; rather, am just excited to see what I'll be writing this time next year.

First act of 2009 was to jump in the hot tub with 3 beautiful friends, fresh snow falling all around and once again coating the trees, dreaming about how to continue weaving our lives together. Now the 3 children are having quite different manifestations of that dream in that same tub, with the same together smiles.

What a day this has been, what a rare mood i'm in
why it's almost like being in love
There's a smile on my face for the whole human race
why it's almost like being in love