REport: A Postcard from the Garden
This month I feel urged to share with you our first Household Update: a status REport to encourage you- especially at this time of year – that heaven still comes to earth.
Now, we all know about the REentry of divine love into the earth, channeled from a manger to a cross, but have you considered what lies on the other side of those wooden vessels of greatness? I’m here to REport that it’s a garden!
I am a REporter and this is my postcard to you from that garden. Its’ a place where:
- We find and function in our intended work – where former outsiders inherit and operate the family farm
- Provision flows in abundance – where former paupers become purveyors
- Our destiny comes to us – where we begin to display what we’ve become
Members of our household – made up of our family, our employees and their families, and those who’ve drawn near to sojourn with us (and hopefully YOU, our dear readers) – have become “garden dwellers” in 2013. We’re learning to live integrated lives, to intentionally replace the structures and strictures of obligatory living with fresh freedom.
In 2013, we’ve expanded in mind, soul and territory as garden dwellers:
- Mind – We’ve become increasingly aware of our intentional deployment into the marketplace as agents of whole life restoration
- Soul – We’ve reclaimed our own souls from the cobwebs of fear and lenses of lies so we can help others do the same
- Territory – We’ve recognized the massive scope of our assignment and run toward the giants anyway
How does this look in the everyday work of our business?
- We filled our travel mugs and tanks and drove all over Oregon bringing life and freedom to the overwhelmed. This year we conducted 682 organizing appointments and invested over 2700 hours into practical restoration efforts in homes and businesses.
- We poured the tea, fluffed the pillows, and made room for an ever-increasing flow of abundant life-seekers into our headquarters in our office, conference center, and kitchen counter. In addition to organizing appointments, we’ve personally mentored and equipped over 50 households with integrated, victorious living.
- We set up the tables and chairs many times over, cooked and baked, poured and dressed the coffee, and hosted hundreds in our barn at Dream Acres – ranging from:
- Restoring Order life-changing special events (watch for many more to come!)
- Creative and charitable organizing workshops (Slim Down Your Stuff & the Double Feature)
- Facilitated trainings on topics like soul restoration and business repurposing
- Family experiences including our first-ever one day Open House & Christmas Tree event
- We prepared the Powerpoints, handouts and take-away product, and spoke hope and inspiration to over 1400 people throughout the year at presentations and keynotes
- We picked pears and apples and plums till our hands were sticky, got our “Pinterest” on and made handmade crafts for the debut of the Dream Acres Homegrown Farm Stand where we reached friends, neighbors, and passersby with the abundance of the orchard and dream life
- Alongside us everyday are our homeschooled budding entrepreneurs Nash and Brock, who are engaging in a lifestyle of learning, hospitality, and growth (in addition to learning the 7 continents, phonics, and math!)
- We went to the hospital to welcome new life. In the midst of all these endeavors, we’ve also expanded our families. Two new babies have come to Restoring Order employees, expanding our hearts and homes
We are no longer a business (and we don’t particularly like the transactional vibe of business in today’s world). We’ve become a port. A port is:
- A harbor or haven
- An opening into which something can be plugged
- An opening for the passage of something
- An opening for loading or boarding
- A gate or gateway
You see, whether we’re hauling Christmas trees or overhauling a file system, whether we’re re-envisioning a kitchen or a person’s life – because we’ve learned to live in the abundant life ourselves – we have become a safe harbor, an opening, and a gateway for others to experience heaven on earth.
From us, some may need a business makeover from top to bottom. Many are buried at home and need a lifeline to pull them out. Others may seek the fragrance of integrated living and desire it for themselves. Some are in pain and want to get the “junk out of the trunk” of their soul and reclaim their spirit. Some want their natural and mental health back. Others may want a sample of homegrown garden living with just a bag of pears or a seat at an event. And however they come, we serve them up garden living.
You see, garden dwellers are channels of life. They’re a port, a gateway to life for those who are stuck in disordered living.
I ended our January 2013 enewsletter with this promise to you: “2013 is going to be a year of expansion. Come along this exciting journey with us to shed everything that is keeping you from your destiny.” And indeed expansion has come to and through this household! We deeply hope you’ve been touched by this expansion. (Please share your stories with us on our blog or on Facebook; we love to encourage and connect.)
So, that my friends, is my REport from the garden life….my re-telling of this past year of living out our dreams and helping others find theirs. It’s a true story of becoming a port through with others can find their opening into victorious living.
As we close out 2013, we can barely contain our joy, for we are still in the birthing room of dreams, with much life coming forth in 2014!
- It will be a year in which our internal reality becomes our external edifice. We will debut our expanded assignment to the world early in the year through a brand new website and social sites
- We’ll be launching a new series helping others find their purpose
- We sense it will be a year of publishing, with a flood of new inspiration and ideas to reclaim your life
- You will meet a lot of new partners through this port that is Restoring Order!
Thank you for journeying with us this year, and in the years to come.
With great affection,
Vicki Norris
Related:
- Sign up to receive our [Restore] Enewsletter
- Visit our store for audios that will help you Reclaim Your Spirit
- Join the movement of Life Reclaimists by signing up for my free Life Reclaimist Jumpstart
- Visit our Life Reclaimist page for more resources
