Defining the farm girl spirit.

iStockphoto / Fred-D

When I think of capturing the farm girl spirit, a picture comes to mind of my kids chasing butterflies in the spring with those cheap plastic Dollar Store nets--back when we were doing a home-school unit on insects one year.

Before we can capture the farm girl spirit (like the sub-title of this blog suggests), it might help to define what it is. Farm girl spirit could mean a number of things to different people, but here's what it means to me:

Reclaiming a lost culture. I'm talking about a way of life that was expected and normal back when my grandparents were my age. A way of life that got women and girls together in the kitchen, talking and laughing while canning or baking bread. A way of life where most people depended on their garden for the majority of the produce they needed--and where it was common knowledge to know how to preserve all that garden bounty, whether in a root cellar, or by drying, or canning. These skills are a lost art in our modern culture where everything is manufactured and convenience reigns supreme. I long to rediscover the satisfaction and joy of a simple handmade life. I want to capture it before it gets too far away, and then pass it on to my kids, nieces and nephews, and someday--grand-kids. So part of capturing the farm girl spirit is learning to do more myself, and being willing to learn those cherished forgotten skills of the past.

Connecting more with people. Part of what we've lost and need to reclaim is the way people connected back before television, computers and i-phones took center stage. Life was slower back then. I want to rediscover the joy of relaxing on the porch with friends while drinking fresh squeezed lemonade and listening to the birds and frogs sing. I want to get my kids and nieces and nephews together to make homemade ice-cream and root beer. I want to slow down and take time to write letters in long-hand to my 97-year-old Grammy, who when she was young, such letters were the only kind of mail you expected to check each day. So part of capturing the farm girl spirit is making intentional choices toward the desires of my farm girl's heart to connect with what really matters--people.

How about you? I could go on and on, but I'm interested in what you think. What does capturing the farm girl spirit mean to YOU? What do you hope to recapture in your own farm girl journey? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.

Joy--Fearless Farm Girl

"Farm girl: it's a verb, because it's what you do."