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
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”
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of a common life podcast. I'm Taylor and I'm here with my beautiful bride Morgan.
Speaker 2:Hey Taylor, hey everybody.
Speaker 1:And 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 3:Yeah, we weren't ready.
Speaker 1:So now we're going to talk about some different things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll talk about.
Speaker 1:My familiar wall.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Luna.
Speaker 2:Life lately.
Speaker 1:Life lately.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Luna and her rich life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see, it's that easy. It's that easy, just press record Okay.
Speaker 1:Just press record.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 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 1:It'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 1:That'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 2:Did he really? Yeah, he never told me that.
Speaker 1:It's right by my bedside.
Speaker 3:Well.
Speaker 1:Sorry, 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 1:He 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 3:And it just really inspired. Me.
Speaker 1:I 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 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Today. Well, actually it was last night, you know, when I walked outside last night.
Speaker 2:You heard the frogs?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the frog chorus, toad chorus is the first one of the year.
Speaker 2:Did you put it down?
Speaker 1:I 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 1:Okay 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 1:It 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 2:We saw the sandhill cranes go over.
Speaker 1:I 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 3:I like that.
Speaker 1:Kind of chronicle it.
Speaker 2:I like that. Yeah, you've been disciplined with it. Like you said, you wrap when it's nine degrees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 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 2:No, I listened for it.
Speaker 1:We'll have to go out there tonight if they're going.
Speaker 2:I told Virginia and she was excited to catch frogs. Is that something we could do?
Speaker 1:We have huge toads down at the pond.
Speaker 2:Is it frog catching season?
Speaker 1:No, I think there is a season for it. I'll have to check that out.
Speaker 2:So 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 1:Definitely.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:So Luna. So we have a new member, an outside member of our family.
Speaker 1:So this was right before it was going to snow.
Speaker 2:Before it got really cold, before it got really cold here, and everybody's prepping and getting ready to hunker down, am I okay?
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Okay, 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 2:And 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 2:In 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 1:And what are the kids?
Speaker 2:doing. 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 1:What am I?
Speaker 2:supposed 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 1:Morgan 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 3:It's true.
Speaker 1:Everything in me is no. No.
Speaker 2:But you would be so boring.
Speaker 3:Well, she's still here.
Speaker 1:She's still here. She doesn't have a collar yet, but we need to get her a collar.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we need to get her to the vet.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do oh gosh.
Speaker 3:I know, I know.
Speaker 1:She's a good dog. She's a cute dog. She looks like a coyote.
Speaker 2:One 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 1:She 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 1:That'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 2:That's crazy. Do you think Wendell asked me today? Do you think she could be a coyote? A coyote.
Speaker 1:No, she's very domesticated.
Speaker 2:She'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 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:No one responded.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 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 2:We did bring her in on the really cold nights, don't tell anybody?
Speaker 1:Yeah, 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 1:Yep, she's pretty good. So that happened. That happened recently, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I had a birthday. You did Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I'm 35, which feels like a midlife crisis kind of. I feel like I've already had mine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 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 1:lot of kids. I mean there's kids, it's in the 20s Anyway.
Speaker 2:So, 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 1:One 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 3:Definitely.
Speaker 1:And it can just be so rich and so good, or it can be miserable.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I 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 2:And you can get into the rut of like all we do is talk about practical things.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And transactional. That's the word I'm looking for.
Speaker 1:And 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 2:Yeah, that was part of the reason we did it was to have set apart time to talk about transactional things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 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 2:I 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 1:But we line up pretty good, pretty well.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 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 2:But maybe try to do that. That's the beginning of the year and people think about goals for the year.
Speaker 1:Maybe 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 2:Or 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 3:kind of get on the same page. It's good.
Speaker 1:It'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 2:We definitely need to figure that out. Can I do it in the house?
Speaker 1:Should I do it under the house?
Speaker 2:That's what you've been saying. Is you're going to do it under the house?
Speaker 1:Well, I know, but then, but that's kind of annoying.
Speaker 2:It's so annoying so we can do it in the little nook area. We just got to clean it out.
Speaker 1:What nook area?
Speaker 2:The area that has a filing cabinet and random stuff back there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That'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 1:And it was perfect.
Speaker 2:No, it's where I put clothes.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll let you know. We'll let you know.
Speaker 1:We say happy gardening. Okay, this isn't very happy.
Speaker 2:Okay, 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 1:I 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 2:I will, I will not forget.
Speaker 1:Okay, morgan has an email now. It's Morgan at a common lifeco.
Speaker 2:I don't know how to get that. How do?
Speaker 1:I 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 2:If you listened this far you are a true fan.
Speaker 1:We love you, heart Happy gardening heart, happy gardening, thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank 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.