Homestead Convenience 38 - Fasten Strong to Forlorn

This farm convenience soothes with its statement that comfort can be found in the sum of little things.Focusing on the strong and pleasant aspects of life can create incremental change, and small events can also effect transition to a better vision.The piece emphasizes that a worthy existence is made up of both good and bad.

Farm Convenience 38

Fasten the strong and pleasant to the forlorn

and declare here is a worthy existence.

Daily comfort is the sum of little things.

Persons are Gifted

This writer has used the 1897 edition of Pastures and Pasture Plants by William Toogood to create her Convenience.Her hand coloring adds interest and emphasis to the piece.I love this convenience for its insistence that virtues are not rare, and that they can be found in many people, if the time is taken to get to know the individual(s).Convenience scholars have classified this convenience as one of the Egalitarian Conveniences. This subgenre of conveniences supports the idea that truth does not belong to any one individual or any one group.Virtue is not rare.

Farm Convenience 47

Persons are gifted with NOT-rare virtues.

Watch carefully.

The best plan that we have heard of, or have tried,

is seeing underneath.

To Preserve the Currant Sweet Content

This convenience comes from a well-known historical writer, which is to say she is well-known within the convenience academic and lay communities.This writer always uses cookbooks, or other culinary texts, to reflect her experiences and create her convenience messages.The literary epicure may recognize that the original page for this convenience comes from the table of contents in the 1863 edition of Beadle's Dime Cookbook; the cookbook is attributed to Mrs. Victor.Because of this convenience writer's familiarity with culinary texts, scholars theorize that she was a cook. She may have been a cook within her own family, may have worked for another household, or may have worked for or owned a commercial enterprise.Scholars also place her writing likely at the end of the 19th- or early-20th century because of the publication dates of her sources.One of the significant themes that appear in all of her conveniences is that of kindness. This writer did not hold with the more dictatorial or directive methods used by some other practitioners.Her emphasis on kindness—and softness, in this convenience—has led some scholars to believe that she had experienced (and recovered from) some kind of trauma in her earlier life.She appears to understand that some clients need to be approached with care.Note that she does not change the word currant (a berry) to the word current (a contemporary state).The word currant supports the ethic-of-kindness theory.The currant is a small and sweet (but potentially acidic) berry. The writer discerns and names the tension between these two states (sweetness and acidity) by keeping the word currant, and suggests an appropriate response.This writer always includes an image of food, in this case chocolate cream pie. More sweetness.

To Preserve the Currant Sweet Content

Make change soft and kind

 

Homestead Convenience 37 - Break Down the Self

The writer of this homestead convenience advocates deconstruction, and the phrase break down is used as both a verb and a noun.When break down is experienced as a noun, the writer recognizes that a seeming break down may actually be a creative experience, and/or an experience full of grace.

Convenience scholars have parsed this passage and have noted that the phrase break down may denote any life experience that causes (or is caused by) stress, depression, anxiety, trauma, etc.

The scholars do NOT attempt to trivialize the physiological causes of a break down, and they do recognize professional help (if required) as contributors to insight and transformation.

When used as a verb, the convenience writer suggests that breaking down habitual ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving is useful. Breaking down is deliberate in this case.Please note that the writer speaks of necessary repairs. She advocates repair, which scholars take to mean a reassembling of thinking, feeling, and behavior.She advocates transformation.

Farm Convenience 37 - Break Down the Self

to break down one's self is to lighten experience

provided the necessary repairs render

Insight and Transformation

Homestead Convenience 31 - Transmutation

Some practitioners favor the idea and act of transmutation, rather than replacement.This convenience writer believes that the energy in old, or no-longer-useful, beliefs or dreams can be changed into a new kind of experience.Please note that the writer advocates NOT beginning the transmutation until all other attempts and all other avenues have proven fruitless.This writer believes the fruitlessness to be natural and inevitable.The writer's comments about coming to the laborious tells clients that there is work to be done.The end of the tether does not mean immediate peace, but it can mean the first step in healing.

Farm Convenience 31

Transmutation

Come to the inevitable, to the natural, to the laborious.

Reach the end of the tether and

undertake sufficient care that no particle be lost.

 

Homestead Convenience 12 - Cut While the Sap is Dormant

Unlike the inconveniences, which often encourage action while experiencing the problematic emotions of anger, pride, lust, gluttony, etc., this convenience encourages working with serenity.The convenience writer advises allowing the emotions to settle and become dormant, suggesting that tranquility leads to a more effective treatment.

Homestead Convenience 12 - Cut While the Sap is Dormant

Cut while the sap is dormant

to strengthen the side

Homestead Convenience 116 - Connecting Dreams

The writer of this convenience appears to have been mechanically-minded, and provides readers with explicit visual cues.This convenience is a good reminder that it is not always necessary to completely discard old dreams.New dreams can be infused with the images and energy of old dreams, and can be grown from their compost.

Connecting Dreams

When it is desired to connect a new dream with an old one,

without loss of energy,

it can be done as shown in figure 142.

Extend the inside of the new dream to the outside of the old one,

and, when ready,

pump the ideas from the old to the new dream

and the new dream will float to the top.

Homestead Convenience 89 - Hint for Mending Broken Dreams

This plain Convenience recommends expanding options.Many convenience scholars infer the following subtext:

Broken dreams are likely inevitable.

Remaining fixated on those broken dreams, or trying to reach them using the same methodologies over and over again, are not useful pursuits.

Expanding options and outlets may provide the extra information to reach the dream, or they may provide a more satisfying vision.

Homestead Convenience 89

Hint for mending broken dreams: deepen outlets

Homestead Convenience 7 - Abundant Possibilities

The style of this Convenience places it squarely within the Homestead Convenience tradition.The Convenience writer tells her readers that her work with the Conveniences offers a wide variety of options and possibilities. 

Homestead Convenience 3A - How to Identify a Woman on the Path

The attribute that makes a Convenience a Homestead Convenience is the style, not the content.A Homestead Convenience may be created by any woman, regardless of education, class, or any other aspect of identity.Some create Homestead Conveniences because they prefer what they consider to be a simpler style.Others create Homestead Conveniences because they prefer the ways that the meanings are emphasized.This Convenience is a Homestead Convenience in style, although its meaning is anything but simple.Many readers may note that this writer has used a page from the book Modern Woman and How to Manage Her by Walter Gallichan, 1910.Notice how the writer has allowed the reader to see the derogatory comments about women: St. Augustine asking why women were born at all, Luther advocating withholding culture from women, and women having the fierceness of dragons and the snake's cunning, among many other negative comments.The writer subverts all of these comments by locating and emphasizing her own descriptions of women on the path.The writer uses her own words and claims her own identity and her own place in history and culture.

Homestead Convenience 21 - Dig on the Other Side

Convenience 21

This version of this Convenience advises trying something different.Einstein is often credited with the quote, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."Whether the quote is correctly attributed or not doesn't really matter; the sentiment conveyed by the quote seems to be recognizable and validated by many.This Convenience, attributed to an 1888 Convenience writer, supplies the same message.Please note the added artistry of this writer; she has chosen to draw the faint outline of a fence behind her text. 

Convenience 21

Be done with the ordinary

And to do this, when ready,

dig on the alternate side of the fence.

Homestead Convenience 1G - The Eternal Mystery

Convenience One is different for every convenience writer, because it is the text in which each practitioner describes her (or the occasional his) initial experience with the convenience mysteries.This writer clearly stated that she believed that the ability to understand mystery was within the realm of possibility for all. 

Convenience 1G**

Many years ago a woman spoke of the Eternal Mystery as within reach for all.

Visit the possible.

 **Please note that the 1G name is merely a scholarly designation intended to make it simpler for future students to differentiate among the various first conveniences. 

Homestead Convenience 100 - Sinking into Grace

Convenience 100 implies an interesting question, and then it suggests an answer.How do we sustain the beneficial changes and growth that have occurred in our lives? Which of us has not experienced a backslide into old behavior, even if that behavior is harmful in some way?This Convenience suggests that maintaining change is a matter of grace.Some Convenience activists have fiercely disputed the suggestion that grace is required to maintain progress. They have argued that activism is definitely required.Are they wrong?Here again, the either/or question: contemplation or action.Later Convenience writers consider the either/or question to be a fallacious one.They would say it is both.

Homestead Convenience 6 - Visionary Art, Observations, and Rich Memories

This convenience writer emphasized the visionary arts and the importance of observation and memory.As you are undoubtedly coming to realize, each convenience writer tends to emphasize the qualities that she herself possesses.I don't personally read The Conveniences as indicating that each convenience writer believed that only her qualities are/were suitable for service.But it is true that several convenience scholars have read the pieces with an exclusionary eye, and some contentious academic disagreements have broken out over the years.Some scholars have made a career out of rebutting others' arguments in various academic journals.Most of the disagreements seem to rest on right brain/left brain conflict.Do The Conveniences describe process? Logic? Art?All of it?

Convenience Six - Visionary Art, Observation, and Rich Memories

Find new inspiration by becoming familiar with visionary artists.

Work may be improved by some observation,

deepened with a store of rich memories.

Homestead Convenience Commentary about Age

This is not really a convenience, more of a commentary shared by a convenience writer who appears to have been getting older and appears to have been feeling unheard or less valued.This convenience writer acknowledges that the period between birth and middle age seems to be the most active and vigorous time of life, but asks that experience in older age be valued as well. 

Convenience Comments About Age

Different seasons make very satisfactory conditions

Germination to October is the most vigorous interval

But experience should be more honored

Homestead Convenience 4 - Put Things in Their Places (mind, heart, soul)

This convenience seems to be about focus.The convenience writer suggests that we have everything we need (mind, heart, and soul), and that we can focus on that fact to go about building a future more in line with our dreams.The writer tells us to use what we have.

Convenience Four

Put Things in Their Places

We have a mind and a heart and soul ready for use in the right place,

and that are good by themselves and the rest should go.

Throw the rest out of reach

Homestead Convenience 10 - Garden of Dreams

This convenience tells us that dreams grow the self.

History shows us that growth has occurred under many different circumstances, from the sublime to the tragically criminal.

Some convenience theorists believe that this convenience speaks less about dreams of nonviolence and harmony than to our reactions to the dreams.These theorists, known as Harmnone Theorists, suggest that dreams be met with discernment. 

Convenience 10

Garden of Dreams

A theory of dreams constructed without violence and in harmony.

The experiences of dreams grow the self.

Homestead Convenience 20 - Inside and Out

I'd planned to share the conveniences without comment, but, knowing myself, I did question how long I would be able to resist adding some academic, textual, or theoretical analysis.The answer: until today. So here I go.This convenience uses the word wife, but I've always been taught that the word is not used in the human-conjugality sense. No one is necessarily married here.In this context, the word wife comes from the Old English wif or wyf, and it means woman or lady.Some convenience scholars do disagree with this interpretation, but it has proven to be the most historically accepted reading of the word.It's an interpretation I much prefer as it seems very inclusive; no woman is excluded, regardless of marital status or any other status. All are welcome.

Convenience 20

Good wife, in your house abide.

Whoever uses her work is found, inside and out, and the trouble generally ceases for the time.

Longevity is increased by keeping kind, inside and out.

Homestead Convenience 51 - Advantage the Good

Convenience 51

Evenly overlap the centre as shown.

Equally suppose care and waste, too much and too little.

The consequence is growth.

There is work about this, but it is, as a rule, common to advantage the good of every sort.

It is possible.