Why by Cristy Rose

I'm just so grateful for this opportunity to live in a farm house with four amazing women, work on a 10 acre certified organic farm, and be living in this great place called oxnard/camarillo. Choosing to be a part of this community, as my sisterfriends have already shared, has been a process, and I feel I've organically grown into this year at our abundant table.

The short story is that I set aside this past year to breathe/pause/selah before I began a PhD program in English and figure out, just the first step, in "letting the beauty [I] love be what I do," as Rumi says, or as Mary Oliver says, in "let[ting] the soft animal of [my] body love what it loves." I was teaching English and working as an Episcopal chaplain at CSU, Long Beach, and I spent the year applying to various schools/seminaries in the bay area and the l.a. area that would let me study what I like to call MY Spirituality; I needed an extended retreat and a supportive community to delve into the questions/concerns/issues/fears/insecurities I carry around with me all the time.

When I was accepted into the schools/seminaries in berkeley and san fran, I thought, "hey, this is it!" and decided that if I was going to move up to the bay area, I needed to live in l.a. proper before I moved. So, sometime in late winter, I moved to Highland Park with as little possessions as possible and my dog, Oliver. The time in HP is well documented, and you can check it out at my blog: cristyroses.blogspot.com if you are at all interested. It was altogether a great time in my life filled with many conversations with my l.a. friends.

One of these convos was with my good friend, Sarah, who just happened to be starting this here abundant table organic farm project. After a bit of thought and feeling, I decided that the farm was for me, particularly because Oliver could come along!

Now, I'm proud to say that Oliver is a farm dog (pictures are coming!). Overall, I'm really looking forward to and am at the same time terrified of grounding myself in the earth, being authentic with my sisterfriends, and developing things such as solitude, hospitality, and prayer. Salud to the farm!
lovelovelove,
cr