Renewed Hope from Jenna Woginrich and My Mom – The Sunday Salon
It’s Easter Sunday morning in my universe, and each year, I find the truth of Easter more powerful – that life can be renewed, that sacrifice can redeem, that death is not final. Today, as I think about my mom, I take great comfort in these hopes. 
For years, Mom and I talked over house plans and garden strategies. She picked up books on small houses that I could turn big and accommodate all the people I love for visits. She taught me how to make jam and start seedlings, all with an eye toward my dream of having a farm.
Now, I’m finding that dream rekindled in the pages of a slim little memoir called Barnheart:The Incurable Longing for a Farm of One’s Own by Jenna Woginrich. For years, Woginrich dreamed of having a farm of her own – with sheep, a huge garden, and lots of chickens. This book tells the story of how she lived into this dream, and it reminds me of the one Mom held for me for so long.
The writing is stellar, and Woginrich’s observations about herself, the joy of farming, and the cultural beauty and struggles that come with this life have reinvigorated my dream of being a hobby farmer myself. I dream of a few acres, a garden, and a couple of alpacas. . . yesterday, reading about Woginrich’s goat Finn, I decided I might want one of those, too . . . I’m so excited.
Having a farm, writing a book – these are my dreams, the things that give me hope and help me live the daily. On this Easter Sunday morning, when we take hope in the greatest of loves – the gift that carries all our mistakes and our selfishness away into the darkness and fills us back up with light and joy – I am so excited to seize hold of this dream and live it.
This afternoon, when Dad and I troll the mountains of Virginia looking for land, we will both be remembering when we did this before, when Mom was the one holding fast to my dream for me because it seemed like I couldn’t hold on to one more thing, when she stood in a barely livable cabin and said, “I think you can do this, Andi.”
You know, Mom, I think I can.
What is your biggest dream? How do you go after it, starting today on the day when the impossible becomes possible?