Journey or Destination - so which one is it?

It's been 7 months since I last blogged, and the post prior to that was a full 14 months ago. But this wasn't always the case, because when I look back over the past 6 years of this blog, there's an interesting trend that has emerged...

• 2015 & 2016 - 20 blog posts in total
• Life was full of adventure, faith was food, and everything was possible...
  
  
• 2017 & 2018 - 6 blog posts in total
• The novelty of our big move now gone, life kicked in again, and to quote my brother, 'everything becomes a 9-5 eventually'
  
  
• 2019, 2020 & 2021 - 4 blog posts in total (averaging a full 1,33 posts a year!)
• Dannean and I have both turned 40 (say no more), and seem to have come full circle. Acceptance of reality has truly kicked in. Did I mention we tried to fire up the adventure again in 2020 (unsuccessfully)?

So, what's going on here? Well, that's a question we've spent the 1st half of 2021 trying to answer... With mixed success I guess, but then life's a journey not a destination, right? But if this is true, shouldn't we just toss out the 10 year vision (included below) that we carved out as the basis for our Walkerville adventure 6 years ago? I mean, isn't life too unpredictable and uncontrollable to put a peg in the ground 10 years in advance? 

Or maybe vision is a combination of both the journey and the destination, and maybe it's the journey that's so unpredictable and uncontrollable, but the destination that can be pegged? Anyway, enough with the theory, let's take a look at where we actually find ourselves currently...

As evident here, the destination we settled on for our 10 year vision was a TRANSFORMED COMMUNITY, made up of a number of key inputs or building blocks you might say. The 3 inputs highlighted in red, represent the ones that should have already been achieved (by year 6). The remaining 4 blue inputs, represent those in the pipeline (that need to be achieved in years 6 - 10).

Well, if the proof is in the pudding, let's take a look at how things stack up 6 years in...

• OTHER FAMILIES
• The community farm we live on (The Field Berry Farm) is made up of 19 of these (families) currently... But this is purely a function of accommodation (not a shared vision). In fact, I don't think we've ever intentionally shared this vision with any of them.

• OTHER BUSINESSES
• My business is that of a sole proprietorship (1 man consultancy). No job creation here, but it does pay the bills (mostly), and certainly provides my greatest currency in abundance - time. As we well know, it's all pie in the sky until it's in the calendar.

• TRANSFORMED MEN
• I have started 2 ministries with this in mind - Called2Conquer & Strive2Thrive. This has taken years of sowing, and (to be very honest) provided only a couple weeks of reaping. In other words the impact or fruit hereof, has been pretty underwhelming. Scripture tells me to be faithful with little, and I like to think I have. But scripture also tells me to measure my success by the fruit (or lack thereof) (or maybe the tree just isn't fully grown).

• Partnerships
• Informally, I guess we've had too many partners to mention (in a friendship, support and learning context), but formally, there are no MoU's or Agreements in place. Although I'm not sure that contractual partnerships are the answer either. Community is more rooted in shared friendships, values and purpose.

• Farming
• No bumper crops personally, but I can make good compost, and have grown some very tasty tomatoes and fiery chillies! Subsistence and commercial farming however are 2 very different animals, and I'm not quite sure which one I meant 6 years ago (or which one it should be 6 years later). Regardless, the Berry Farm continues to go from strength to strength, and on top of that, just finished planting 6 hectares of orchards, with 6 more in the pipeline. 

• Schooling & Training
• This is interesting, because it's actually my current project or business plan, being a future school concept called Eduship. Eduship is a hybrid of the traditional and homeschool education models, being an affordable, accessible, school in a classroom, franchiseable, American Diploma based, middle and high school offering. Quite a mouthful right!? My prayer (God willing) is to pilot such a school on the farm in 2022. Watch this space!

• Transformed Church
• It's also interesting to me that this input comes last on the list. As with TRANSFORMED MEN (above), I'm not sure what this would / should actually look like to be honest. That's not to say I don't have some ideas, but I'll spare you those for now, suffice to say, what I know for sure; is that Jesus is King, and his Big Daddy loves me.

So there we have it... A pretty wayward journey, and an unreached destination. Perhaps this then, is the obvious and best explanation, for the meteoric decline in our blog output over the past 3 years. In saying so however, the Lord has seen to it that I was born with my glass half full, and so true to form, there's still 3.5 years to go (before the lady with the fuller figure sings her song). Dannean on the other hand, being more of the pragmatist, tries to keep my head out of the clouds, while continuing to be my greatest fan and friend. I thank you darling.

Which brings me to my (current) conclusion on the matter, and that is, the skill of accepting reality like a pragmatist, but rejecting the status quo like a protagonist, is only truly learnt by testing (which is not for sissies). Or as my good friend Teddy Roosevelt put it, 'the credit belongs to the man / woman who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again...' I love this quote, of which I have included the full version below, however, as powerful and moving as it is, there remains something remiss about it for me. 

And that's this; the older and more pragmatic I become as an individual, the bolder and more optimistic I become for the role of team (vs The Man). To be honest, I never have been much of a team player - team sports yes - but putting the team 1st - hell no! In my own defence however, I have been given the spiritual gift of Leadership (that's not a joke by the way), which certainly doesn't make the job of following any easier!

Anyway, more about that (and how much I learnt from the Springboks RWC victory in Japan) in my next post. Thanks for reading ;)

God bless!