Jealousy...

In the past week I have had three different people tell me that they are jealous of my life. I have been wondering just how I should respond to this, or if I should at all. I decided to tell a story. In my heart of hearts I always wanted to live in Maine. I wanted to grow gardens and have lots, and LOTS of animals. But life happened and before I knew it I was living in a cute house in mid-town Memphis, Tennessee. My yard was about as big as a two car garage and we shared a driveway with our neighbor. It wasn't what I'd had in mind, but I had my little family and a lot of pets and I was happy. But my dream of rural life niggled in my brain and when I was 43 we packed up our every worldly possession and moved to Maine. We left our jobs, our security,all that was familiar, our pretty house and a lot of friends. It was hard and scary. When we first moved in I met neighbors who had beautiful gardens, a huge flock of free range chickens and some other livestock. Then I met a friendly couple who raised their own beef, meat rabbits, chickens and even had horses. I thought, "these people are living the lives I wish I had. Maybe in my next life I can do something like they do." My thinking was that at my age I was more the type of person to have a flower bed and a few dogs than herb and vegetable gardens and critters. 5 years later I was still feeling a little envious of the people who had lambs and hens and grew their own veggies. One day I looked wistfully at my neighbors chickens and thought, "I could have a few chickens. I'm not dead yet!" Before you could say "cock a doodle doo" I had a tiny coop and 4 pretty pullets. They brought be much joy and their eggs? Delicious! My friend then suggested we raise a couple of spring lambs to help "mow" our lawn. Next thing I knew we had baby lambs turning grass into meat. And we put in some gardens and grew garlic and potatoes, green beans and pumpkins and more. Fast forward to today... we raise meat chickens, laying hens and ducks (meat and eggs.) We've had lambs for 3 years, but this year are going to bring up a couple of pigs. We are adding a dairy goat and plan to move my horse home from where she currently lives at my friends house. All of this makes me happy and I tell stories of my adventures raising all these animals. I take whimsical photos to illustrate the fun I have. When I am not writing or taking pictures, I am: scooping poop, hauling water and feed, shoveling in the dirt, swatting bugs and weeding. And more weeding, and more poop moving. And it's all because of what I choose. When people tell me they are jealous it makes me feel... sad. I enjoy sharing tales of my adventures. Making people feel envious is never my goal. The life we have created here was born from sacrifice, tough choices, hard work and a heaping does of serendipity. I imagine other peoples lives are made from the same stuff; they just have fewer mouths to feed!