Welcome to My View From the Porch.
A porch is a wonderful place to notice what’s around you.
So is a patio, a balcony, a front step, an apartment window, a kitchen table, a park bench, a favorite chair – or a place you determine each day.
A porch is a place where you participate in your own life instead of simply moving through it.
Around here, the porch is less about where you sit and more about how you notice the life happening around you. It’s where you decide to try something, call somebody, make something, and contemplate where you’re going. It’s the place where you sit still for a minute, laugh at something ridiculous, and then maybe… decide to stay a little longer. Together, we create the space for intentional living and community.
We aren’t here to tell you how to live.
We’re not telling you to wake up at 5 am, throw away your phone, or to completely reinvent yourself.
We’re not hoping you’ll find your life’s purpose by Tuesday, or move to a farm and start making your own cheese… Of course if you’ve always wanted to make cheese, then by all means, we want to hear about it!
Some days with us are quiet. On other days we’re sharing food, people, gardens, and road trips. Some days we talk about things we’ve found, or something we almost walked right past.
Life doesn’t have to be slow to be noticed. It just has to be yours.
Sometimes the word ‘meaning’ is smaller than we think
Ever wonder about the meaning of life?
Has anyone ever told you to go find your purpose,
…and your first thought was that you have no idea where to find it ~ or how to create it?
That’s a pretty big assignment.
Why am I here? Why aren’t people nicer to me? What am I supposed to be doing?
Why does my brain need to think about absolutely everything at once?
Life screams sometimes.
……bills, people, work, family, decisions, disappointments, headlines, expectations
and whatever else has decided it needs your attention before you’ve even finished your coffee.
Sometimes you need a brain break.
Other times, your brain needs something different to think about.
… Something interesting … Something useful … Something funny.
or Something that has absolutely nothing to do with solving your entire life’s issues.
Words like meaning and purpose sound enormous. And sometimes the questions feel impossible.
Maybe ‘meaning’ is smaller than we think though.
Sometimes ‘meaning’ simply gives a day some shape.
– That book you want to finish.
– A tomato plant that needs water.
– Dinner with somebody on Thursday.
– A project sitting on the table.
– Something new you want to learn.
– Your dog waiting for a walk.
– A friend or family member who would love to hear from you.
– A place you’d like to visit.
– Something you’re making for somebody else.
– Something you’re curious about.
None of those things has to answer Why am I here? Maybe it just answers:
What sounds good to me today? or What could I do that I’ll look back on and be glad I did?
Sometimes that’s enough.
Those little reasons to participate add up.
Meaning doesn’t always arrive looking important
Sometimes the smallest thing starts it.
You buy a package of colorful bookmarks because you liked them.
That’s it. Nothing profound.
… but then maybe one makes you think of somebody, so you give it to her.
You put another into the book you’ve been meaning to start.
You leave one in a neighborhood book box.
You ask somebody what she’s reading – and you decide to give a few more away.
Now that little package of bookmarks has led to reading, giving, conversation, curiosity and connection.
The bookmarks weren’t the meaning.
What you DID with them was.
That’s the kind of thing we notice around here.
Participation doesn’t always mean doing more.
We aren’t interested in turning every empty space into another task.
Sometimes participating in your own life means sitting there long enough to hear the birds you hadn’t noticed earlier – or listening when somebody tells you a story you’ve already heard.It’s staying at the table for another ten minutes, and looking out the window without automatically picking up your phone to scroll.
Sometimes the most engaged thing you can do is to stop doing.
There’s a difference between choosing quiet and disappearing into it though. There’s a difference between having space in your day and feeling as though nothing in the day matters very much. Most of us probably move back and forth between the two.
You don’t have to reinvent yourself
That’s another thing we’ve made harder than it needs to be.
We talk about fresh starts, new chapters, finding ourselves, changing our lives. Sometimes that’s exactly what somebody needs. But sometimes you don’t need a new life. We just need somewhere to go Thursday. Or…
– something to make, someone to invite, something growing outside.
– Time to complete a little project sitting unfinished on the table.
– A person who needs what you know how to do.
– Something to anticipate.
– Something to contribute.
– A reason to put shoes on.
* A reason to think, “I want to see what happens next.” There’s your new beginning!
Maybe “start here” means something else, too
It’s easy to look around and decide what’s wrong with everybody else.
“People are rude. People don’t understand. People have it easier than I did.
People complain too much. People don’t appreciate anything.”
And whew… People online can be especially good at this.
Someone shares a recipe, a room, an opinion, a picture, a mistake, or a little piece of her life – and somehow a stranger decides she needs to be taken down a notch.
Yes, sometimes life screams ~ and quite possibly we sometimes add to the noise.
We compare lives we didn’t live. We judge decisions made under circumstances we never experienced.
We want people to understand what we’ve been through while forgetting that they have a story we don’t completely know either. That doesn’t mean we have to agree with everybody. It doesn’t mean bad behavior suddenly becomes good behavior.
But maybe before we figure out what’s wrong with an entire generation, or our neighbors, our families, the internet, or civilization in general, there’s a smaller place to begin. Start with…. Me.
Could I listen a little longer? Ask instead of assuming?
Leave the mean comment unwritten? Thank somebody?
Could I help? Invite somebody along? Admit I might not know the whole story?
Could I make one little corner of the day better instead of simply pointing out everything that’s wrong with it? Yes. Doing it is participation, too.
Maybe we don’t need to solve the world’s problems before dinner.
Maybe we start with ourselves.
Start here.
Today.
Around here, that’s what the porch represents. A place – or simply a moment – to notice, try, make, call, laugh, help, stay curious and participate in the ordinary life already happening around us.
Life feels different when you do. So start wherever you want.
Spend a few minutes. Browse. Smile.
Agree with us. Disagree. Try something. Ignore something completely.
Take an idea with you, or tuck it away for another day – or leave it right where you found it.
There are no assignments here.
No judgment.
And no requirement to become a better version of yourself before you can enjoy the version of you that’s already sitting here.
This is us. This is My View From The Porch.
We invite you to hang out for a bit. Read something. Share your story. See what we’ve gathered
There is probably something right there worth noticing.
So come find your seat on the porch and let’s talk.
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