A Common Life
Welcome to A Common Life where Morgan and Taylor offer month-by-month gardening advice to help your garden thrive. We also share our personal journey in seasonal living, aiming to foster a deeper connection with others, nature, and our Creator. Our hope is to encourage and equip others who are on a similar journey and to provide a space for community around these ideals.
A Common Life
The familiar hike, Luna, A Rich Life
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This episode unfolds the beauty of slowing down to notice life’s simple pleasures and the enriching conversations that strengthen relationships. We explore the concept of a 'familiar walk,' the heartwarming story of adopting Luna, and what it means to define a ‘rich life’ in partnership.
• Emphasizing mindfulness through daily walks
• Sharing nature journaling prompts to engage the senses
• Connecting with the beauty of subtle changes in nature
• The heartwarming tale of adopting a stray dog, Luna
• Reflecting on creating a rich life through shared goals
• Practical gardening updates for the upcoming season
Let us know what you think! Reach out to us at Morgan@ACommonLife.co
Community Newsletter - The Common
DM us on the Socials or email us at Taylor@acommonlife.co
Music on the podcast was composed by Kevin Dailey. The artist is Garden Friend. The track is the instrumental version of “On a Cloud”
Nature's Influence on Everyday Life
Speaker 1Hey everybody , welcome to another episode of a common life podcast . I'm Taylor and I'm here with my beautiful bride Morgan .
Speaker 2Hey Taylor , hey everybody .
Speaker 1And in this episode we are still trying to figure out what we're going to talk about . And in this episode we are still trying to figure out what we're going to talk about . But I just went ahead and hit record because you know , you just gotta exercise the muscle . That's what we're doing . We're exercising the muscle , the podcast recording muscle . So we're here . We were going to do homemaking , the book series , but then we realized we had some more pages to read in a chapter . We just weren't ready .
Speaker 3Yeah , we weren't ready .
Speaker 1So now we're going to talk about some different things .
Speaker 2Yeah , we'll talk about .
Speaker 1My familiar wall .
Speaker 2Mm-hmm .
Speaker 1Luna .
Speaker 2Life lately .
Speaker 1Life lately .
Speaker 2Mm-hmm .
Speaker 1Luna and her rich life .
Speaker 2Yeah , see , it's that easy . It's that easy , just press record Okay .
Speaker 1Just press record .
Speaker 2Yeah , so , first of all , did you get the idea of the familiar walk from me ? I think so , I think it was like some um fairy homeschool thing I think it's called the familiar hike , but it's basically where you go on a hike , the same walk most days , through , through every season , just to see the same terrain in every season and just how it changes . And so Taylor has adopted a familiar walk and you've been very faithful to your familiar walk .
Speaker 1It's a very short walk . It's just off our porch into the woods . It's not very far , but I like it . I got inspired when I went to Kentucky to visit this man . It's actually a work trip , but he is in his eightiess . He's an elderly man , but he lives by himself and he doesn't have a tv , he doesn't have a cell phone , I don't even think he has internet he's an artist right , he's an artist and he built the house that he's in in like the 70s and , uh , he just listens to the radio .
Speaker 1That's how he stays up to date and he watches his birds . He bird watches , he paints and he writes letters . After we got back from visiting him , he wrote me a letter .
Speaker 2Did he really ? Yeah , he never told me that .
Speaker 1It's right by my bedside .
Speaker 3Well .
Speaker 1Sorry , I mean it was very short and sweet , but he did and , uh , he told this story about this tree in his front yard and he just lit up telling this story and the story goes like this in the matter in a matter of hours , from sun to noon , this tree dropped half of its leaves , and he was just so excited to tell me this and he had been watching this tree and waiting for this tree to drop its leaves . And it did . And it did it , like I said , in a matter of like four or five hours but he was watching he was watching and there was no breeze .
Speaker 1He said it was just a clear day and it was like raining leaves , and then it just stopped . And so I was thinking about that , you know , when he was telling me and I was like man , he had to be watching and waiting and noticing and he keeps a little nature journal about all the different things that he notices .
Speaker 3And it just really inspired . Me .
Speaker 1I want to be somebody that notices . You know we talk the talk , but it's important to walk the walk , and life is just better when you're anticipating those little moments . And you've been watching , you've been noticing .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 1Today . Well , actually it was last night , you know , when I walked outside last night .
Speaker 2You heard the frogs ?
Speaker 1Yeah , the frog chorus , toad chorus is the first one of the year .
Speaker 2Did you put it down ?
Speaker 1I did , but I wrote down insects . I didn't know it was toads until today at work I asked my co-worker I said what insect is that ? And he just kind of smiled and said that's a toad chorus . You're like , oh yeah okay . So when you go on your walk , you think about three things , or you ask yourself Well , yeah , so there's that book that you got me , I think , for my birthday or Christmas , I don't remember , but it was the Nature Drawing Journaling Book , and so I got these prompts from that book .
Speaker 1Okay got these prompts from that book . Okay , but yeah , I'll walk out and I just try . I just try to slow down and notice what's different , what's going on . Uh , sometimes I listen for the birds . For a while there we had quite a few woodpeckers around . I haven't heard them as much lately , but then the prompts are , I notice I wonder why it reminds me of . So I noticed this hole in the ground that had a bunch of frost around it one day and it wasn't frosty or icy anywhere else . It was really cold , it was like nine degrees . So the ground was hard , everything was frozen but there was no ice . And this hole in the ground it looks like an animal hole , but it doesn't look like it's an active animal hole , and all of the pine straw , the leaves around this entrance to this hole was white . It was like it was like ice . It wasn't ice , it was like frost . And so I noticed it and I said I wonder why it's doing that . So I thought about it and then it what it reminded me of .
Speaker 1It reminded me of , uh , like a frozen mustache you know , like if you're in really cold weather and you're breathing a lot and your mustache gets frozen up yeah , my mustache yeah , so that's that's what . That's what the prompts are . Just kind of helps you be present . That's cool , and so I'm taking , I'm keeping a journal about what I see on the familiar walk , my , my familiar walk , and also just other things that I notice out and about . I see a bald eagle here .
Speaker 2We saw the sandhill cranes go over .
Speaker 1I see the sandhill cranes go over . I'm writing all that down and once a month I'm going to write on our In the Common kind of just write it all out in a newsletter .
Speaker 3I like that .
Speaker 1Kind of chronicle it .
Speaker 2I like that . Yeah , you've been disciplined with it . Like you said , you wrap when it's nine degrees .
Speaker 1Yeah , I could do better . I mean I miss , I miss every a few days in between , every time . Better , I mean I miss , I miss every a few days in between , every time . Um , but yeah , it's just , it's just getting out like last night I went out , I just walked outside for a little bit and was quiet . It was so nice . The toad chorus is so comforting to me . It's like really an awesome sound did you hear it today ?
Speaker 2No , I listened for it .
Speaker 1We'll have to go out there tonight if they're going .
Speaker 2I told Virginia and she was excited to catch frogs . Is that something we could do ?
Speaker 1We have huge toads down at the pond .
Speaker 2Is it frog catching season ?
Speaker 1No , I think there is a season for it . I'll have to check that out .
Speaker 2So the familiar walk , it's fun that's good you should try it yeah , I can do that some . Yeah , I know I should just do it with the kids , mm-hmm .
Speaker 1Definitely .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1That's good .
Speaker 2So Luna . So we have a new member , an outside member of our family .
Speaker 1So this was right before it was going to snow .
Speaker 2Before it got really cold , before it got really cold here , and everybody's prepping and getting ready to hunker down , am I okay ?
Speaker 3Mm-hmm .
Speaker 2Okay , everyone's getting ready to hunker down for the snow and we are driving home . And as we're driving home , we notice this dog up in the woods . I kind of look , and then we keep going and there's another dog that's actually on the far end of our property and she's right by the road . And so the kids are all in the car and they're all like stop , stop , let's just see if she has a collar , let's just check and make sure she has a collar , and maybe we can take her back home . And so we pull over and get out of the car .
Speaker 2And as we're getting out of the car , another car stops behind me , and so my thought is this is this dog's owner , and so I'm just going to get out and help her put her dog in her car . And so we get out and I'm like hi , is this your dog ? And she's like no , I've never seen that dog before , but I'm Midge . I've never met Midge before , but she lives on our street . Yeah , and Midge is a talker . Let me tell you what Midge talked my ear off . I'm 35 minutes 40 .
Speaker 2In the middle of the street , in the middle of the street y'all , and I'm talking like , detailed Like personal details , personal detailed stuff .
Speaker 1And what are the kids ?
Speaker 2doing . Kids are bonding with Luna . I'm sorry , Kids are bonding with this dog . And they come up and Wendell says Mom , we can hear her tummy growling . Her name is Luna , we named her Luna and she's just so sweet and perfect . But she's hungry and she's going to be so cold . Let's just take her up to the house and feed her .
Speaker 1What am I ?
Speaker 2supposed to say no ? And then Midge is like , oh my gosh , you know what ? And she goes to the back of her car and she had just bought Not one but two bags of these bacon dog treats . And she was like this just must be a sign . Here's a whole bag of bacon dog treats . And the kids were like , oh , it's from god , she had the bacon dog treats in the back of her car . So we like corral l Luna to get in the van . She gets in the van , we go up to the house .
Speaker 1Morgan sends a picture of this random dog to me and I just said no . That's how all these stories start with me saying no , a firm no .
Speaker 3It's true .
Speaker 1Everything in me is no . No .
Speaker 2But you would be so boring .
Speaker 3Well , she's still here .
Speaker 1She's still here . She doesn't have a collar yet , but we need to get her a collar .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1And we need to get her to the vet .
Speaker 2Yes , we do oh gosh .
Speaker 3I know , I know .
Speaker 1She's a good dog . She's a cute dog . She looks like a coyote .
Speaker 2One little I know she's a good dog , she's a cute dog , she looks like a coyote , she's like one little gimpy ear .
Speaker 1She has a gimpy ear . Only one ear stands up . She looks like a coyote , truly . I was walking out the other day . We were going down the road the road on the farm , like the dirt road and yeah , she got way ahead of me and you know there's coyotes out there and I didn't want her too far out ahead of me . So I yelled at her . I was like Luna , you better not get too far out ahead of me . And she stopped . She looked at me and she took off into the woods Because it wasn't her and that's weird . I was like that was a coyote and she took off into the woods Because it wasn't her .
Speaker 1That's weird . I was like that was a coyote . It was a coyote . It was a coyote . It wasn't even her , it looked just like her .
Speaker 2That's crazy . Do you think Wendell asked me today ? Do you think she could be a coyote ? A coyote .
Speaker 1No , she's very domesticated .
Speaker 2She's somebody's dog that they didn't want her , they dumped her Well , also , I will say we did put her on the Facebook .
Speaker 1Oh yeah .
Speaker 2No one responded .
Speaker 1Yeah , and she's done everything she's supposed to do . She still really wants to get into the house , but she's an outside dog .
Speaker 2We did bring her in on the really cold nights , don't tell anybody ?
Speaker 1Yeah , mainly our kids . We don't want them to know that that privilege was had , that barrier was broken . Yeah , she didn't stay outside when it was single digits . We did bring her in for that , but 15 , she was outside . Stay outside when it was single digits . We did bring her in for that , but 15 , she was outside and she was fine , just curled up by the back door . Yep , luna is her name and she's just a stray mutt . And they're pretty good dogs , those kind of dogs Really sweet yeah .
Speaker 1Yep , she's pretty good . So that happened . That happened recently , mm-hmm .
Speaker 2I had a birthday . You did Mm-hmm .
Deep Dive on Marriage Enrichment
Speaker 1I'm 35 , which feels like a midlife crisis kind of . I feel like I've already had mine .
Speaker 2Yeah , I feel like I've already had mine . Yeah , well , you're just . I've seen something that says like millennials have gone straight past the midlife crisis and just into granny and grandpa hobbies which is so true . I mean at least about us well , I mean at least about us . Well , I went with my friends up to the lake and we have between us a lot of kids . There's six of us . How many we each have a ?
Speaker 1lot of kids . I mean there's kids , it's in the 20s Anyway .
Speaker 2So , as moms like time , to just sit and talk without constantly being interrupted isn't just very rare , and so to have a whole weekend to get away and just be together was really special .
Speaker 1One of the things we did for your birthday was you and I had a chance to get away for a little bit and it was really good . And you know we've been married , we're coming up on 13 years 2012 , 2012 , 13 years and marriage is like most things . I feel like you get out of it what you put into it .
Speaker 3Definitely .
Speaker 1And it can just be so rich and so good , or it can be miserable .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 1I can see how people are just miserable Just passing each other . Yeah , I can see how people are just miserable . Just passing each other yeah .
Speaker 2And you can get into the rut of like all we do is talk about practical things .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2And transactional . That's the word I'm looking for .
Speaker 1And even in the transactional things you can miss each other , because we talked about a lot of transactional things actually , but it was very connecting .
Speaker 2Yeah , that was part of the reason we did it was to have set apart time to talk about transactional things .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , and so one of the things that you wanted us to do was talk about what it means for us to have a rich life , like how I define a rich life and how you define a rich life and that was a good exercise .
Speaker 2I liked it . Yes , I heard it on a podcast which I shared with you . But this guy wrote a book called Money for Couples . I haven't read the book , haven't listened to him , I only listened to this interview . So I can't recommend him . But this 20-minute interview was really good . So I can't recommend him , but this 20-minute interview was really good and the main thing I got from it was that so many couples go through these transactional times , you know , but they're not looking ahead or having the same goal of what does a rich life mean for us ? And if you're not defining that and you're just going about day by day , it can be easy to lose sight of each other and lose sight of what it is that you're really wanting . Because for me and you , you know , a rich life isn't jet setting and which for some people it might be .
Speaker 1But we line up pretty good , pretty well .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah , that was really encouraging and that's the cool thing about us I'm thankful for we our values are aligned , what we like , what we care about , we can still have fun together , hang out . Other areas we have to work really hard at . It's not easy , but some of the other things , like what we like to do and our definition of a rich life was pretty together . Yeah , what were you going to say ?
Speaker 2But maybe try to do that . That's the beginning of the year and people think about goals for the year .
Speaker 1Maybe think about what is a rich life ? Definitely as an individual . Or if you're married , talk to your spouse about that , it's fun , it's a fun conversation and then from there the idea is okay , well then , how do we do this together ? How do we manage our finances in a way that we can enjoy the rich ? Life that we want .
Speaker 2Or incorporate a few of the things , or okay , if this is what we think a rich life that we want . Or incorporate a few of the things ? Or okay , if this is what we think a rich life is . How do we save up for that ? Or just ?
Speaker 3kind of get on the same page . It's good .
Speaker 1It's good . Okay , well , quick garden update . Oh , man , we need to order seeds , seeds . It's time to order seeds , people for sure , if you're listening to this , it's in february , so you need to be ordering your seeds allison I put that in the last month's newsletter for january , you definitely need to be ordering seeds , uh , but I don't know . Our it's just going to depend . I mean , we've been planting tons of trees , we're getting a new garden space worked in . We don't have a seed starting area . We need to figure that out .
Speaker 2We definitely need to figure that out . Can I do it in the house ?
Speaker 1Should I do it under the house ?
Speaker 2That's what you've been saying . Is you're going to do it under the house ?
Speaker 1Well , I know , but then , but that's kind of annoying .
Speaker 2It's so annoying so we can do it in the little nook area . We just got to clean it out .
Speaker 1What nook area ?
Speaker 2The area that has a filing cabinet and random stuff back there .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2That's the only space . Can I do it on the table in the laundry room ? No , you always do that . My laundry room table at the other house ended up a seed starting area .
Speaker 1And it was perfect .
Speaker 2No , it's where I put clothes .
Speaker 1All right .
Speaker 2Well , we'll let you know . We'll let you know .
Speaker 1We say happy gardening . Okay , this isn't very happy .
Speaker 2Okay , so you know , what's really happy is looking through seed catalogs . So that's what I'm going to do before our next podcast and then I'm going to share my favorite things that I'm going to order and plant .
Speaker 1I just remembered we need to get the kids involved . For the children's part , that's what we said we were going to do . If you're saying you're going to do that , you better do that . You better write that down this week . So in the next podcast , people are going to be wanting to know what your favorite seeds are .
Speaker 2I will , I will not forget .
Speaker 1Okay , morgan has an email now . It's Morgan at a common lifeco .
Speaker 2I don't know how to get that . How do ?
Speaker 1I get to that . I've already told you . I sent a screenshot of your username and password and everything which we need to buy a common lifecom . It's available now . Whoever that woman was in Missouri , who's homeschooling her kids and she thought she was going to be a common life ? No , alright , we might have to edit this out , I don't know . Okay , everybody , this is another one in the books .
Speaker 2If you listened this far you are a true fan .
Speaker 1We love you , heart Happy gardening heart , happy gardening , thank you .
Speaker 3Thank you . I'm going to use a little bit of water to get the water out . I'm going to pour it into a glass . I'm going to pour it into a glass . I'm going to Thank you .