Wandrin Star Farms & Barnard Family

“With simplification we can bring an infusion of inspiration to our daily lives; set a tone that honors our families’ needs before the world’s demands. Allow our hopes for our children to outweigh our fears. Realign our lives with our dreams for our family, and our hopes for what childhood could and should be.” Kim John Payne – Simplicity Parenting

I received the best gift for Mother’s Day this year from my husband.  He secretly set up a trip for me to visit one of my dearest and best friends on her family’s new ranch in south Texas.  I was overwhelmed with emotion at his thoughtfulness; it had been going on 3 years since Marla and I had been able to connect due to moves, pregnancies, life’s business and so on. She is in fact, living outside Austin in the gorgeous hill country and I am up north in the colder, not so convenient Kansas City.  I was blessed to spend four days soaking up a world of solitude, a pace of life so often left behind and immersing myself in a friendship that had anchored me throughout the last 17 years of my life and beyond.  

Spending time with the five precious, Barnard children allowed me to take home nuggets of wisdom and hope back to my own family.  See, many dream to raise their children on acres of unbounded land, where nature sets the cyclical rhythm and pace of life.  Many dream to raise their children where they can run barefoot in creeks, learn the value of hard work on a farm and the rule of thumb that selflessness and simplicity in the end, gift a soul more than “things” or a new home ever could.  Many dream to run their own business, set endeavors into reality, but few do.  Many aspire to raise their children with a connection to their past generations, but few can break away from the grind of today to do so.   

To see this family, take ownership and believe in their dreams left me in awe.  They have always pursued big dreams, but this was a leap of faith that called for unwavering belief that the vision set before them would produce more than they could have asked or imagined.  Beyond seeing a business come to fruition, to know that their five precious little souls are growing into the kind of adults a parent can only dream of, made this trip all the more amazing.  What a gift!  

“Rest nurtures creativity, which nurtures activity. Activity nurtures rest, which sustains creativity. Each draws from and contributes to the other.” – Kim John Payne“In its complexity and sensuality, nature invites exploration, direct contact, and experience. But it also inspires a sense of awe, a glimpse of what is still “un-Googleable” . . . life’s mystery and magnitude.”  Kim John Payne“Simplification establishes an unspoken emphasis on relationship.” Kim John PayneIn the end,  a parent’s legacy will not be defined by how much money we made, what businesses we owned, our social status, or any professional allocates.  Maybe to some it matters, but in the end our children are our legacy; our portfolio (as their dad worded it so eloquently) our arrows that we send out, and our seeds that will someday be rooted deep into this earth and continuing to grow long after we, ourselves are gone. What will we leave behind that matters more?  A fat bank account, earthly possessions or hearts and minds that will change this world for the better? “Family is not disparate relationships between individuals and machines, in separate rooms of a house. Childhood is not a race to accumulate all of the consumer goods and stresses of adulthood in record time. Simplification signals a change and makes room for transformation. It is a stripping away that invites clarity.” Kim JohnPayne
These five will forever be forged together, molded by long summer days catching crawdads, early morning feeds, helping dad shape and clear the land,  gathering food from the animals they care for and long walks into the hot setting Texas sun as the day draws to a close.  I love them like my own and watching them, as they now reflect their parents attributes is so rewarding.So here’s to friendship and all it’s rich bounty of gifts.   Thank you for the amazing time friends and all you taught me – your home is filled with rare and precious treasures that are worth more than all the riches of this world.  Thank you for sharing those treasures with me. Thank you for reminding me to slow down.  Not by anything you said or did, but because of who you are and how you live.  Thank you for sharing your wonderful way of life.“After all, it’s not just what you make of your time, it’s whether you have the time to make it your own.” Kim John Payne