Some Images from life thus far at the mill...
posted by annie... at 11:35 AM
Thursday, October 18, 2007
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1 Comments:
Letter to a young U.S. artist,
Romanticizing belongs to youth, hitting hard reality is part of maturing. Just as you've had a taste of what growing one's own food is: work, maybe you've also grown. (Although, truthfully, 2 weeks of gardening and a back ache is about enough farming experience to maybe only write it up on the blog). I assume why you came to stay with us, was to experience another way of life. Living in a post-communist country, only 15 years after the fall of the Berlin wall is no laughing matter. Luxuries, like 24 hour internet access that a U.S. student takes for granted, are new and expensive here. It has taken us 10 years of letter writing and pleading with the powers-that-be (without bribes, also unusual) to try and get "plugged in". And since we are in the wilderness, there are no land lines to connect us, true. All of your complaints, are true, and in fact, exist for a great percentage of the people of the world outside of the U.S. I feel lucky we have running water. Sometimes we don't, since the pump is on electricity and the juice sometimes goes off. Part of life at the Mill. Besides the abundance of mice in the house, the isolation, the weather (winter has not even begun yet!), the language barrier, the absence of all-night donut stands and gourmet tea shops, we hope you have at least enjoyed something of this month with us. My hope is that you will remember the taste of fresh potatoes from the earth, dug with your own hands. Or the golden color of our own eggs, given by our hens in abundance each and every day. The garden greens and tomatoes you had in the early fall. Fresh basil at each meal from the green house, a stone's throw from the front door of your cottage. And of course, the goat milk, from our beloved Daniella, for yogurt or milkshakes or in tea. All this abundance is from the mill, without driving to the store or that "long" walk to the market which I don't think you actually ever did, did you? Will you remember that the garbage pail is filled only twice a month, since we recycle to help lesson the impact on the earth. When you are back in the city, will you recall the air so clean and crisp here that it nearly has a taste? Of pine and forest. Did you ever see the magic of a sumava sunrise?
Every artist garners her or his inpiration from some source. In the end though, it comes from within. As you prepare to leave us, just in time to miss the first quiet snowfall of winter, and the long months of contemplation and introspection, I hope you will take these few thoughts back with you. The 'standard' of living in the U.S. is unparalleled elsewhere for reasons we are aware of. What you came to experience here, and I admire you for trying, was a simpler way of life, with less 'footprint' on the earth. But even simplicity takes work, Annie.
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