Maybe i have better instincts?

Beef11 · #1 03/26/08, 10:53 AM

I see people everyday who live amongst the rat race. Hurry to work hurry home drink beer, watch tv go to sleep hurry to work, hurry home and all so that they can pay for that which they can't afford without the endless torment of the rat race. I'm not saying the rat race is wrong if you choose it but many see it as the only choice. Go to school, get into college, score a good job, hopefully retire in 40 years. I'm not anti education actually very pro education and college educated myself. I am different though as are many of you. In the early days of spring i have a very strong urge to get out to the land and plant the seeds of spring and watch new life arrive as well as prepare the orchard and turn the animals out on pasture. When summer comes i get busy picking berries and eating them as well as putting them up for winter. Fall comes and i get the serious urge to store food and hunt up food as well as cut wood. Around thanksgiving i am ready to hibernate as everything is in place for a cold winter. I think that the rhythm of nature should be intertwined with our lives and we should go with the flow. In our modern world i see us getting further and further from it. Is it instinct? is it a stronger connection to mother earth? What is it?

Bonnie L · #2 03/26/08, 11:26 AM

I think those instincts are pretty normal! Something I remember from some years back: Even if you win the rat race - you're still a rat!

Meg Z · #3 03/26/08, 11:29 AM

I think most folks have the instincts. They just don't understand them. So we have Spring fever, Spring cleaning, fall parties and a huge pack-rat fest prepping for winter holidays. Instead of putting up food, people put up decorations and buy gifts.

Many of them have never looked at outdoors as a place of life.

Meg

DamnearaFarm · #4 03/26/08, 12:34 PM

And some of them (us included) hone their instincts later than others and then *go to ground* like we're planning to do.

RoseGarden · #5 03/26/08, 12:50 PM

I think people are so divorced from nature and man's inherint instinct to follow the rythms of the seasons because of the rat race, the tv, the beer, shopping, boughten entertainments and everything else that the 'average' person participates in. People are so busy working to make the house pmt, the new car pmt, the kids extracurricular activity schedule, going out on Saturday night simply because it's 'what everyone does' that they don't have time to notice those rythms and they can't feel the inherint instinct anymore or they mistake it for needing to go shop or on a vacation.

It wasn't that long ago, historically, that most of the population in this country was still rural, approx. the turn of the last century. And many of us grew up listening to how it was 'in the olden days' down on the farm or ranch, as late as the 20's and 30's. So in 100 years or less, most people have gone from being in tune with nature to being aware of very little of it.

Myself, I could no more ignore the pull of the seasons and the tasks to be done as I could ignore the sun and moon. I do feel it, and very keenly.

Beef11 · #6 03/26/08, 01:52 PM

Rosegarden:

"I could no more ignore the pull of the seasons and the tasks to be done as I could ignore the sun and moon. I do feel it, and very keenly."

You pinned it.

I have a woodstove in my house and their is a split in the men that come to myplace. Half can't get enough of it and half wouldn't lower themselves to using wood heat. Everyone wants to come see my animals, garden and eat my food but many will distance themselves because of stigma many people think they are "better than farmers" neat to visit but there are more important things for them.

How do i pass this connection with nature to my children?

DamnearaFarm · #7 03/26/08, 02:23 PM

I intend to share it with them as much as possible. My middle son is an electronic geek so it's a bit harder with him, but i've found that the more involved they are and the more able to see the results of their labor- kids need the tangible, I guess- the more interested. Our kids are impatiently awaiting planting season here, they'll each have their own *plot* in the garden.

Our last vacation, instead of renting a room and eating at restaurants, running to catch shows and openings/closings we rented a cabin at the KOA. No plumbing, no TV (we did bring the portable DVD player and books 'cause let's face it, there isn't much to do in Charleston outside when it rains!) no cooking facilities- just beds, ac and fans.

We had no schedule, no race to run and cooked our meals over the fire or on the grill. My kids had never been camping and had a BLAST. (I figured, and rightly so, that a tent in the woods might be a bit much at first!)
I just present new things in a positive light and let them realize things for themselves......

MisFitFarm · #8 03/26/08, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beef11

I see people everyday who live amongst the rat race. Hurry to work hurry home drink beer, watch tv go to sleep hurry to work, hurry home and all so that they can pay for that which they can't afford without the endless torment of the rat race. I'm not saying the rat race is wrong if you choose it but many see it as the only choice. Go to school, get into college, score a good job, hopefully retire in 40 years. I'm not anti education actually very pro education and college educated myself. I am different though as are many of you. In the early days of spring i have a very strong urge to get out to the land and plant the seeds of spring and watch new life arrive as well as prepare the orchard and turn the animals out on pasture. When summer comes i get busy picking berries and eating them as well as putting them up for winter. Fall comes and i get the serious urge to store food and hunt up food as well as cut wood. Around thanksgiving i am ready to hibernate as everything is in place for a cold winter. I think that the rhythm of nature should be intertwined with our lives and we should go with the flow. In our modern world i see us getting further and further from it. Is it instinct? is it a stronger connection to mother earth? What is it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoseGarden

Myself, I could no more ignore the pull of the seasons and the tasks to be done as I could ignore the sun and moon. I do feel it, and very keenly.

I agree with this whole heartedly. I feel this so strongly, it is truely physical.

lilmommajnn · #9 03/26/08, 10:12 PM

I feel the drive to do the same things...a mixed blessing. I'm stuck in an apartment after having lived on my own half-acre. Everything edible I have tried to grow has died.

But I keep trying. I'm getting ready to try sprouts and growing lettuce in a window sill. At least I'm figuring out what doesn't work.

Oldcountryboy · #10 03/26/08, 10:28 PM

I guess it's all how you are brought up. My dad thought you had to follow the big money wherever it was happening at. Constantly moving to different states in hopes of making hisself rich. By the time he died he didn't have a penny to his name. Those who stayed behind made do with what they had and had a much better life then he did.

I got into that rat race when I was a younger man. Thought I had to be somebody important. After 25 years of working my hinny off for everyone else I figured out the only one doing well was the one I was working for. So now days I don't work for anyone and just do a little bit of service work for residents. Cut my own wood, catch fish and deer, grow gardens and enjoy life much better.

RichieC · #11 03/26/08, 10:33 PM

Sounds a bit self-congratulatory.

I have kids. They're worth working for.

Scrounger · #12 03/27/08, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldcountryboy

I guess it's all how you are brought up. My dad thought you had to follow the big money wherever it was happening at. Constantly moving to different states in hopes of making hisself rich. By the time he died he didn't have a penny to his name. Those who stayed behind made do with what they had and had a much better life then he did.

I got into that rat race when I was a younger man. Thought I had to be somebody important. After 25 years of working my hinny off for everyone else I figured out the only one doing well was the one I was working for. So now days I don't work for anyone and just do a little bit of service work for residents. Cut my own wood, catch fish and deer, grow gardens and enjoy life much better.

My Dad didn't teach us to chase Mr Jones. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister. Out of all of us, myself and ONE brother could care less about what the Jones's do. One brother tries to stay AHEAD of them. Sometimes, the way you were brought up gets distorted by your own mind and worries about how others percieve you.
A couple of years ago, my edlest brother was very sick and in the hospital. The brother who is so wrapped up in his public "appearance" was camping about 15 minutes from the hospital, with his wife. When they were called about the situation, they said they couldn't come to see him, because they didn't have the "right clothes".
What a crock! Some people let the "Rat Race" and how they THINK their public image is percieved cloud their mind.