A new chapter of sharing begins!
Hello friends, family and subscribers,
I am excited to begin writing again and to announce some exciting new projects I’ve been working on these past few years. (Spoiler alert - a NEW BOOK and PODCAST are on the way!)
Many of you started following me during my early years of motherhood and homesteading. I posted regularly back then about my life raising four young ones and falling in love with growing food on my downtown neighborhood homestead. Some of the content from those early posts was turned into a book - a project which still makes me smile. The passion I have for growing food, tending animals and community is still very much alive through the neighborhood farm that was born out of that precious season of my life. Plenty Heirloom Farms is now a non-profit organization and has been offering education and inspiration to our local Loveland community for over 11 years.
These past five years I’ve been relatively quiet online as I’ve been pouring my creative energy into writing a new book. It’s a memoir about my spiritual journey, titled Becoming the Other - how I accidentally discovered beauty in all that I once feared. The process of completing this book has been incredibly healing. It chronicles my early life of faith as a zealous young Evangelical and the many unexpected changes I’ve experienced since my youth. I’ve unzipped my heart in this one, friends.
Playing with book cover ideas!
I am in the process of exploring publishing options now - but I plan to start sharing excerpts from my book on a new podcast beginning next week! This new platform of sharing will be called The One and Other Podcast.
As I wrote this book about my life, an obvious theme emerged. In so many seasons of my becoming, I was focused on identifying who I was as opposed to very distinct others. As a young Evangelical, it was critical to distinguish between ‘believers’ and ‘unbelievers’ in order to determine who was ‘saved’ and who was ‘lost’. I grew up in Santa Cruz, California - but unlike all of my eclectic neighbors, I was raised in a ‘conservative’ family. I was not like all of those ‘liberals’.
As a young wife and mother, I was committed to tending a home built on godly standards. My ‘godly’ life was not at all like those who lived a ‘worldly’ life. After a health and financial crisis, I found myself unexpectedly becoming an urban homesteader and homeschooling mom. This way of life was ‘alternative’ - as opposed to the ‘conventional’ others who ate, learned and lived like the majority.
In every iteration of myself - at every age and stage of growth - I’ve found beauty. Yet I also felt a small, quiet disturbance deep down - a lack of peace about how these titles and labels made me feel at odds with those around me.
believer vs. unbeliever
saved vs. lost
conservative vs. liberal
godly vs. worldly
alternative vs. conventional
us vs. them
I have always wrestled with these ideas of one and other.
Struggle and suffering have a way of opening our hearts and softening our certainty - at least if we let them. In my own life, financial failure, marital and parenting challenges, grief and loss opened the door and invited me to loosen my grip on everything I thought I knew - and eventually all who I thought I was.
My journey as a mother has been one of the most challenging to my own sense of self. My four unique children have taught me more than any others, giving me a glimpse of how the world looks through their eyes. As I sought to understand them individually, I was given the gift of discovering who I’d always been as well.
In his book “The Myth of Normal”, physician and author Gabor Maté speaks of what he insists are the two most basic human needs: attachment (or belonging) and authenticity. These are both essential to our healthy human thriving. He also writes about how, especially in childhood, people will often trade their authenticity in order to belong. When it’s not safe to show up authentically as we are, we will cut off those ‘unacceptable parts’ in order to feel safe in the family, culture or community we are born into.
In my book I describe the pain of feeling unexpectedly outside the safe walls of belonging that I’d so deeply enjoyed in my youth. Though it happened slowly, the realization came as a shock. I had never intended to become an other. This painful process of unbecoming and re-emerging has brought with it a profound gift. I have claimed the beauty of my unique, authentic self. And in the process, I also woke up to the reality that I belong to the whole world and all that is.
On the One and Other Podcast we will discuss how we are both ONE (connected to the all) and OTHER (distinct and different) for a reason. Instead of us vs. them, how can we hold the both/and of our individuality and our collective unity?
I have a very long list of topics to discuss, people I would love to interview, art that I’ve made and songs to share as we go on this journey together.
I know that you too bring something unique and essential- from your own life experience and distinct design - to add to the conversation. I hope you will follow along and join in the conversation!
In love and connection,
Sarah
