I Wrote This on a Newspaper

Seriously, I did.  Not for any particular reason, other than I wanted to see how it would look (I’ll attach a picture at the end).  Of course, surrounding circumstances were such that I haven’t updated my blog recently and there was no normal paper at my disposal.  

It strikes me as funny that I have this ridiculous impulse to maintain a significant measure of privacy surrounding my personal life AND YET, here I am, prepairing to bare a portion of my soul to the internet.  What gives? In all honest truth, there are portions I reserve the right to keep personal, at least for now.  It’s only fair.

Rewind. Why don’t you have any other paper to write on, Vivian?  Good question with a simple answer.  I work on a fruit farm and it’s a rainy day.  I have to remain at my post, but if no customers arrive, I am free to fill my time as I wish (i.e. write this blog post).

But, Viv, how do you have customers at a fruit farm? Aren’t you doing field work? What happened there? I’ll tell you. Bohringer’s hired a woman to run their u-pick wagon for the summer, but there was a misunderstanding and she is only available on weekends, while the farm needs her every day.  The solution: yours truly.  Now I do field work from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., then I run the wagon until 6 p.m. and tell people where to pick strawberries and take their money when they’re done.

Not a bad gig, you say.  And in most cases and many places, that is true.  There’s always a catch, though, and I’m starting to realize God consistently uses the snags in my life to teach me what I need to know.  This snag is my lovely introversion.

Some days the flow of cars is slow and I relish spending time consciously focusing on the needs of each person.  Just now, as I’ve been writing this, I stopped for fifteen minutes to talk to a woman who is extraordinarily passionate about the New York State Museum. I didn’t even know that was a thing!  But I love those moments because I am able to engage with them in God’s love and smile and truly care about what they have to say.

The busy days are, without a doubt, more difficult for me. People scurry in and out of the field like ants on hyperdrive as I try to direct the newcomers and make change for the exiting pickers quickly and concisely.  Those two jobs seem easy enough, but wait until you have six carloads of impatient people waiting on each line and then tell me it isn’t overwhelming and stressful. On our busiest day this season, I held it together until I got home and thought about making dinner. At the very notion of cutting up squash, I burst into tears.

I share this, partly because it’s real life, but mostly because I rejoice that God sustained my “too much people” meter throughout the entire 13 hour day.  He let me smile at each customer and help them graciously. Who cares if I had a meltdown at home?

Another reason to rejoice is that I officially have enough money to pay for my next semester at EBI in full! (Amen, amen!)

And while the work hours are long, my life has had some play in it as well.  Gracie and I were able to take our almost annual lazy day at the beach a couple of weeks ago, and enjoyed a weekend camping trip before that.  Last weekend I enjoyed some really awesome fellowship with Emmie, who is interning with Ethnos360 at Wayumi in PA. 

Now my summer is already beginning to wind down.  I’m excited for the adventures yet to come, but I’m also stoked for everything the next semester will bring.

And I think that’s it!

Summer Poetry

whispering.

rustling.

waving.

who can guess what the grass is

saying?

gusting.

rushing.

blowing.

who can say where the wind is

going?

listening.

watching.

waiting.

i don’t know why but i am

trying.

(Just some thoughts from the strawberry field earlier this week. And below are two of my favorite views recently.)

PS: Life is good.

Weeding the Weeds

(Looking at a field of baby plants that I helped place in the ground is actually a pretty incredible feeling. Featured here: super sweet corn)

(It’s a bad picture, BUT THOSE ARE LITTLE RASPBERRIES!)

(And the first red strawberry I’ve seen this season 💛)

The days are still long and hard.  Every day this week has found me bent over the bushes like an Entwife, but the hours of solitude are a gift in many ways.  People laugh when I say I pass the time talking and singing to the little plants I’m tending...and maybe it is slightly odd. Somehow though, I find the more I speak softly into the silence, the more it becomes a conversation between God and I that has nothing to do with the bushes.  I’m content there, grateful even, as every day the desire of my heart is more firmly established to do this and every other work as unto my God and King.