My dream

Everyone keeps asking me what I want to do with my life after I graduate and it's quite frustrating because what I know I want to do is not what they are actually inquiring about. Most people want to know what career I want to begin or if I want to go to grad school. I do not know what my career will look like but I do know certain things that I want to do.

I want to be a hippie. My dream is to have my own vegetable garden and grow a large variety of veggies. But not only  grow and eat them but to freeze, can and store them so that ultimately I'll be able to feed an entire meal with food from my garden in the winter. All the while being able to give a portion of my vegetables and harvest to people who need or desire fresh vegetables. Forget whatever career I have, this is what I want to do. I want to live in a house (while I am still single) with people my age but also maybe an elderly widow who has years of experience, stories and wisdom but also wants to stay young and spry with me. I want to be able to either bike to my workplace or my church (or both).

Besides that, my dream is to live in a community that actually helps each other out. Earlier in January, Islamic fundamentalists from Pakistan and other radical regions were coming into Egypt and terrorizing Coptic Christians during their mass. (These were not local Egyptian Muslims but from other regions, mind you.) So Egyptian Muslims got together and surrounded the Christian's church during mass to protect this minority group. Later, during the riots in Egypt, the Christians got together and surrounded the Muslims as they stopped for their daily prayers. What a beautiful act of community!! Both groups did not believe in the same faith but in the same justice and bonded to protect each other. Even here in the US we would never see that happen. Here in the US where we have "diversity" and "freedom" we are too apathetic to even try to unify different groups for a specific cause.

My dream is to live in a town that does that. I've been attending two churches this past year and both of them are in the same rural region, maybe 10 minutes away from each other. Both have been saying in the past season how they want to reach more out to the community and how their community is growing in faith and in need. What would happen if the leaders and congregations of these two very different churches united together?? What would that look like and how could we outreach as a united body of Christ even if we come from different backgrounds?

What would happen if these two churches united together with the local Lions club or American Legion or Social Services and asked them what was needed and how they could help in different ways in the community? What would happen if local businesses approached the public school system in this area and asked how they could be a good influence to students in the middle and high schools? Or what would happen if farmers allowed the local rural poor to glean their fields after they finished harvesting their crops? What would happen if these two churches came together with these businesses, the local government and the American Legion and discussed local racism and the unspoken KKK in the area? What would happen if we spoke about immigration and instead of hating the illegal immigrants, we learned to love them and we learned the issues as to why they are here illegally and acted to help them but also the issues of being undocumented? What would happen if we opened up our hearts and homes to juvenile delinquents and abused foster kids who are ignored in the area?

This is my dream. There is a lot of Scripture to help me articulate my thoughts and a lot of controversy about these issues but I'm just pondering and dreaming at this point. This is what I want to do when I graduate. Not have a job. But to find and live in a community. That is more important to me than any career that I will begin.