Farmer Girl

I went to Atlanta for a weekend in a big city.

But I ended up at a farm.

I’m not sure how I keep finding myself taking on the persona of a faux-farmer since I’m really more of a glam-girl. 

The closest I’ve ever come to yearning for country life was during my childhood, when I read about my favorite farmer-girl Laura Ingalls and her adventures in the big woods.

But the appeal wore off as I grew up and discovered lipstick and high heels.

So every year when fall arrives, my sister and I head north to Atlanta, looking for a chill in the air and a few brightly colored leaves, but mostly we go for the shopping, dining and culture of a big city.

A few years ago we thought my niece might enjoy staying at an inn near mid-town that had goats and chickens and turkeys. That was the scene when for the first and only time in my life I held a chicken. 

{You can read about it here, if you’d like.} 

But this trip we stayed at Serenbe, an organic farm village in the Chattahoochee Hills just outside Atlanta that made the other inn look more like a children’s petting zoo. 

The New York Times calls Serenbe a utopian experiment in new urbanism, and it’s certainly a unique community with farm-to-table restaurants, shops and activities.

I ate breakfast at the 1905 farmhouse, strolled around the farmer’s market, visited an organic coffee shop and bakery, and ate dinner cooked by a chef recognized by Food & Wine magazine. 

{Where by the way, I had battered tempura bok choy that was so scrumptious I could have easily eaten another plateful.}

But mostly I met donkeys, pigs, one lone rooster who wouldn't stop digging for bugs to let me take his picture, and some mischievous goats, who were determined to see if I had any snacks for them in my camera bag.

I have to admit that after I met all of these new friends and visited them in their habitats, I sat down on a bench and rested my weary feet in my possibly-too-high-for-a-farm-stroll-heels and let my niece run off to see the rabbits, sheep and llamas. 

{And of course, now I'm sorry I have no photos of the llamas.}

Sometimes you find that where you end up is really where you were supposed to be after all.

Our life's journey might travel over winding roads that seem to be too far from our desired destination. We settle somewhere else and wonder what we’re doing there because we just don’t feel at home.

We wait impatiently to move to a place that’s more our style, that has what we want to do and who we want to do it with. 

We cry hard tears and then cry out to God, asking why we’re in a place that just doesn’t fit us, when really, he’s fitting us for our place in his plans.

We trudge on dusty paths and through barren fields, looking for a harvest, hoping for an open gate, not realizing that God is bringing us into a good land.

He beckons us onward to have a pioneering spirit, blazing trails where we’ve never gone before. 

And he waits for us to get out of the old ruts to respond anew, consider creatively and refute toxic mindsets for an enriched and organic way of life, that puts him at the foundation of our thoughts. 

What if we plow under the crumbling leaves of discouragement? What if we sprinkle the soil with a determination to wait for the ripening of what God is sowing in our lives?

It may take a season, it may take several seasons, but maybe what God matures and brings to fruition is a harvest worth waiting for.

Though the fig tree does not bud

    and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

    and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

    and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

    I will be joyful in God my Savior. -Hab. 3:17-18 (NIV)

As it turns out, I actually did find a little luxury in the country. 

We stayed at an apartment called the Nest, next door to the Bakeshop in the community of Serenbe that lived up to its reputation of elegant urban comfortable sophistication. 

I could have easily called it home.

And I did find some fall-ish weather in Atlanta, which was really just Florida fall weather minus the humidity. 

I even saw a few colorful leaves.

Which leads me to believe I could fall for farm life, but only for a weekend or so.

I'm having coffee with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart. Click the image and join me there for more posts from my blogger friends!