I am thinking some people do not know that finally I bought the farm...
The farm that I have dreamed about for decades. It's in Washington County, Kentucky, about one hour from here, a beautiful drive down the Bluegrass Parkway from Lexington.
Just far enough out that it didn't draw horse farm prices (easily ten times higher immediately around Lex), and that the Internet and cell phone don't work, but close enough to run away to, even for an afternoon.
Someday, I hope to turn the farm into a retreat where UUs and other progressive & loving people can come together to study/write/practice mindfulness/meditate/celebrate/learn, especially about sustainability & environmental justice. Let me know if you have a few hundred thousand dollars to spare and we'll roll.
Meanwhile, it's my retreat... quiet, beautiful, loaded with reminders of birth and death and change and renewal, of hope and of loneliness. Can you tell how much I love it? As soon as I finish my homily for Evolution Sunday, I'll be on my way. A fire in the fireplace, my walking stick, and some good reading material.... ahhh!
It's called Innisfree, after a very well-known poem by Yeats. But in case you have forgotten it, here 'tis:
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there,
a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
William Butler Yeats
