Finding some joy

I've been told by a certain person that I need to discover the joy in my life and put it on the outside.  I've thought a lot about that over the last few weeks.  There are the obvious things in my life that give me joy, my boys, my new fiance - the normal stuff that give a lot of people joy.

Then the question was asked what would you do if you never had to worry about money?  That's a lot tougher question.  The same things come up, but if I didn't have a "job" what would I do with all of my time.  At first I think - maybe I would just read - but that would get boring.  I could volunteer and help people with different things - organizations, etc.  But what is it that I could do that would make me the happiest.

Plants, outdoors, sun - these things all come to mind.  But how to put it all together.  But in MN I can't really do that for about 1/2 of the year without a green house.  OK - well then a greenhouse, but that's an expensive thing to keep going when it gets down to -20 degrees.

Well finally I figured it all out.  In an age where materialism is dying - just look at the world financial markets and it doesn't take a genius to see that we are going to be living through a depression for a while.  What is it that most people need - food and shelter right?  Well if I could be the one to start a movement of growing things - in backyards, houses, decks any space - maybe you would be lucky like me and have your own green house.  The bottom line is - I could wrap a bunch of things that give me joy into one.  My love of plants, my love of teaching people, my love of helping people, my love of healthy plants and the good nutrition they provide, of good stewardship for the world, organic farming (or minimizing use of chemicals for farming), and of expanding their minds.  100 years ago there were more people that lived on farms or in rural communities than today.  Today less than 3% of the USA has any involvement with agriculture/food production.  A good chunk of these people are immigrants or illegal aliens.  That leaves 97% of this population that is or is getting farther away from their food.  There are a lot of people who don't know that milk comes from a cow or even what a cow looks like.  If they did know where it comes from they probably wouldn't drink it because they are afraid of GERMS or something else stupid.  

My guess is that people as we go into this depression are going to need some help learning all these things again.  Also with the way things are right now - they will need a lot of help.  How am I going to get to these people yet - I'm not sure, but it's sort of the if you build it they will come.  If there is no Idea - nothing will happen.

There may or may not be animals involved.   Bees are going to be important to all of this, maybe chickens too, dairy cows are too smelly for me - but pigs eat everything so I could see pigs being involved.  Anyway this is more of a side joy thing - plants are where it's at.

So here it is the plan - what is Dan going to be doing at some point in his life.   It sure as hell isn't going to be answering the phones or counting by five.  Those things may be needed for a while, but it is not something that will work forever.

I am just peaceful and happy after finally making this - things could change a little as I get going, but this is where I see it going now.  I just need to get it all down so I remember.  I have a nasty habit of forgetting if I don't write things down.  I may make some changes, but this week has just been an exciting, confusing, overwhelming, and joyful week for me.  Life is a lot of fun when I don't take it so seriously, when I can step back and say now what is really important.  So here is my idea and it makes me pretty darn happy and joyful.  Now how am I going to do it?