The past couple of years I have been more and more curious about moving away from groups of humanity and into not only my own space to contemplate more but also into more space to contemplate more, if that makes any sense.

My brother, a long time resident of Bend, Oregon, moved a couple of years ago into a little town (if you can even call it that) of about 60 in northestern Oregon on 600 plus acres he bought and is developing, for himself. Not developing in the usual sense that we hear about it. There’s a barn and a shop (BIG barn) and the meat room (in the making) and a gun room and a garden and a horse pasture or two and ponds and oh my goodness, let me tell you about last night.

After dinner, where we/they still eat together as a family (breakfast and dinner), we ventured, or even crept, up on top of a fairly tall hill of rocks overlooking his alfalfa field which he cut that day. (I even got to ride in the swather, named aptly because it makes swaths in the field). There, grazing in the protection of the sunset, were many, many deer. We looked through some powerful binoculars to see them all, including the bucks that were wandering happily among the cut rows, chowing down on the delightful snack. The whole thing was heaven to my senses, as long as I didn’t ponder the fate of a couple of those healthy creatures who I know will eventually end up as dinner.

This place is peace. And it’s peaceful. It’s still the way nature intended it, albeit with a slight presence of man thrust into a few square feet of it. My brother is developing the springs, planting food just for the wildlife (pheasant, deer and more) and making it his oasis of sorts. And I have to say he’s doing a great job at it. He has a respect for the land and is happy to give much back as he makes life from it.

Today I will be happily putting away the keyboard for a pair of gloves, some nails and some plywood and playing his assistant all day. Hard work but I prefer it to this tittertyping of the keys as of late. 

Freedom, financial and more. That is what this place is to me. And the ability to play golf when one wants and buy the food one wants and do as one pleases each day, regardless of what that means.

We put so much emphasis on doing good and giving back and making a difference and I’m pretty sure we do that often because we’re simply grappling to discover some answer for us as to why we’re here on the planet. It gives us the ability to justify our existence I suppose.

What if we’re just here because we’re here? 

What does freedom mean to you. You must know before you can create it. I know what it means to me and I’m happily creating it and I think that may be the ultimate freedom…happily creating freedom itself.

Enjoy and pound a few nails in your goals today…