I heard someone on the radio the other day – it had to be NPR – talking quite grimly about the new economy, hard times and the new realities of life. For many people, they are very hard and very true. But the speaker was saying how awful it was that resources were getting scarce and people were having to act and live and think differently. For once, I wanted to call up and say wasn’t it just possible that we need to think differently, need to change our ideas about what we can and can’t do, what we do and don’t need, what we can and can’t afford?

Do we need to grow constantly? Make new things? Change the ones we have? I always knew this, but I appreciate the perspective of living it. I am grateful we could not afford to hire someone to do this work. It was hard, tedious, challenging, it was wonderful, connecting, satisfying. We love our new home all the more, our blood and sweat is already in it, and in it together, as one. Just what we hoped for. How lucky, in these changing times, to be changing.