Inconvenient truths

I need more inconvenience in my life.

Truth.

I've gotten so used to everything being perfectly convenient- water, food, heat, eggs, milk, bananas, fresh salad in the winter, frozen chicken, broccoli on demand, perfect apples any day of the year- that I have forgotten how to be satisfied.  There's always one more thing to get and it's never enough.

I need more inconvenience.

When I drive 20 minutes round trip for eggs from our church friends and meet their chickens and chicken-sit in winter while they're on vacation, I appreciate the eggs.

When getting milk involves a 40-minute trip to our 4H friends' dairy farm, seeing the cows, looking out over their fields of corn and oats, filling my own glass bottles and jars from the tank, and cleaning up after myself, I am thankful for the friends and the cows and the view and the milk.

When nobody wants to go, I say to myself, "Goats of your own are a lot more hassle than this."  I get in the car and go and dream of my own goats next year.

Thursday I spent 4 hours working at the buying club, picked up our first order, bought apple seconds from the local orchard, and then unpacked, sorted, and processed food for an hour.  Friday, Anjali spent an hour cleaning out the freezer chest, Tim made a hour round trip to Braham to pick up half a hog from the processors, and I spent three hours blanching broccoli, chopping and freezing peppers, and sauteing and freezing leeks.  Peach sauce and drying apples today and dehydrating apples with a friend on Wednesday.

And contrary to my expectation, it's not boring, mindless work.  It's work but I'm finding it satisfying and calming.  Feeling the crisp fall air while watching my shelves and freezer fill- I like it.  I also imagine that I will really appreciate that broccoli in January.  And some February morning I'll make eggs with those red peppers.  My chickens are thrilled with their pickings and our new composting worms will start with a bin of broccoli stalks. 

This is not meaningless, stupid inconvenience.  That would just be aggravating.
This is honest inconvenience and I'm happier for it.