Entries about abundance

I believe we all have a higher purpose in this life, one that stems from our Divine Origins, and it is greater than any career, any material thing, or anyone for that matter. Over the last few years, a veil has been lifted before my eyes, and I, along with my husband and son, have realized what that purpose is for our family. Over the last two years, we have traveled across the world in search of the Source of all Life, yet ended up finding it only within ourselves. And now, we feel “a fire in our bellies” to embody, to manifest, our dream into our reality.

This comes at a time when our world is increasingly being destroyed on many levels. We have been taught to believe that competition is our nature and we must struggle to survive. Because of this, our planet, our home, is being ravaged in the name of capitalism. All the while, humans are becoming more and more disconnected from each other, from Spirit, and from nature. Yet, there is hope. I know that things can change for the better. More people are waking up to what is happening on our planet. Humans are waking up to their true potential. We are realizing that we are all connected and we are all interdependent. When our planet suffers, so do we. When the animals suffer, so do we. And most of all, when we allow the suffering of other human beings, so do we. So what does this mean for me and for you? I have woken up and am ready to put into action what my purpose is. We are all connected, and I need your help.

To begin, I’d like to introduce myself and my family. My name is Jessica Parks. My husband is Tracy and my son is Elijah. About two years ago, we were your average American family. We had a nice house, two cars, and great jobs. But there was something missing. Our life lacked meaning. Then after the birth of our son, Elijah, in 2012, we came to the conclusion that we couldn’t raise him this way. Something had to change. We had to change. So we decided to sell or give away everything we owned down to one backpack and travel in search for the Source of Life. We traveled to Peru and back, and then across the entire United States. We weren’t quite sure what we were looking for; nothing seemed to satisfy us completely. Don’t get me wrong, we saw a lot of amazing people and communities changing the way they were living to be more sustainable and more in line with their values and with the Earth. And it inspired us, but it wasn’t until we were holed up in an apartment in the winter that we began to find what we were looking for. We begin to look within ourselves. And that’s when we discovered true happiness and the Source of Life! We learned that we could be happy anywhere, and we could create the reality that we dreamed of!

So with that, we are now living in northeast Missouri. This area of the country attracted us, as there are a number of sustainable intentional communities here, like the Possibility Alliance and Dancing Rabbit. My husband, Tracy, is a licensed counselor and currently providing therapy to individuals and families in Kirksville, MO, while I am staying at home with Elijah and growing an abundance of vegetables and fruits at our rental place. All the while we are patiently waiting for Source to provide us with the perfect piece of land and resources for us to begin creating our vision. My family and I are dedicated to creating a sustainable, modern homestead, a model of what life can be like, if we work together and if we work with the Creation all around us. Our vision is threefold. The first component is the homestead itself. We will create a modern homestead incorporating plants, animals, renewable energy, and the synergy of ancient wisdom with new permaculture concepts. We want to be a model of what is possible and how regular families can live more in line with their values and with all of Creation.

The second component is community outreach and education. To do this, we will offer organic, nutritious food to our local community with prices that are less than or equal to conventional food. This would be done with farm to table dinners at the homestead or with a stand or food truck at local markets. Our goal is not to make money; our goal is use good food as a way to invite our community to learn about sustainable farming, “beyond organic” food, and ethical business models.

The final and third component of our vision is a healing or retreat center. This is the most critical piece. Just as my husband and I began healing when we dug our hands in the Earth for the first time, we want others to experience that too. There will be no TV, no internet, and no distractions, just the quiet whisper of nature and Spirit. And a whole lot of farming and fun too. I believe that when we take away all the distractions and devices of mainstream life, most people are left with an emptiness that desires to be filled. That is where Spirit comes in and really fulfills that longing. Our healing center would offer individuals or families a stay on our homestead, so that they could experience what they really need. Maybe that includes milking a cow each day or digging in the dirt. Maybe it includes quiet meditation. Maybe it includes doing some therapy or tapping (EFT) to release past trauma. Maybe it just includes being with others and really connecting to one another over a meal. Whatever the case may be, I know that the experience will heal the individual because that’s what Spirit does. Spirit, God, Source, whatever you call it, it is pure love; it’s where we came from and where we can go back to. Pure love only knows how to restore and heal.

As I come to an end, I want to ask you if this vision resonates with your higher Self, your Spirit? My family and I have an abundance of love, creativity and passion to put this vision into action. And we are looking for someone who feels a similar calling to use their resources to move our world towards a better future. Maybe you can’t come live on the homestead with us, but rather have an abundance of financial resources that could help fund this vision. It takes all kinds and all people to bring our world into a new way of being. We are all connected and we all desperately need each other, if we want to see humanity flourish to its highest potential. So if this rings true to you, please connect with us. We are ready now, and we’d be more than happy to go into many more details about our vision and about ourselves. I am actually writing an entire book about it, detailing our physical journey and my spiritual journey that brought us to this vision. Whether it’s buying land, funding just one piece of the vision, or just offering advice, we are open to accepting any resources that you have in abundance and want to funnel towards creating a new, Spirit-filled, world.

In Gratitude,

Jessica, Tracy and Elijah Parks

How can we glorify God? This question was raised as part of a sermon this past Sunday at a local church we attended. The pastor mentioned it in a discussion about suffering and why suffering happens in our lives. Obviously life isn’t fair. We all know that fact; however, the point he made was that it’s how we look at situations that matter. Rather than asking why did this happen to me? Ask how can I use this to glorify God? For us (and I’m guessing most people), it’s been easier to see the negative in what we’re doing. Life isn’t that simple when your living out of your car, not able to be around family and friends, trying to find a new home, and raising a sweet, but very active (and accident-prone) 9 month old toddling baby. But our goal here is not to complain about what we don’t have or what we wish would happen. Anyone can do that. We’re on this journey to find God and find the Source of Life, so a great question really is: how can we glorify God along this journey?

We can glorify God by living the way that God intended for humans to live, which we believe is with one another, with the land, and with love. Jessica’s been reading a great book called “Return to Creation” written by a Native American man, Medicine Story. He explains beautifully how people ought (and probably really desire) to be living like, and that involves community, cooperation, and love. If you ever have the chance to read any of his books (see his website here!), we’d highly suggest doing so, as they are very inspiring and uplifting to the possibilities and potential of human beings.

Anyway, before we left many people told us how brave we were to do this because they wished they could do the same, but felt stuck in one way or another in their current situation in life. Hopefully by setting out on this journey we can set an example for others to follow, wherever their path should lead them, as not everyone is meant to do the same thing. We want to show others that it is possible to find your bliss and live it. That’s really what everyone is striving for, isn’t it? To find love and happiness, and live it? Every choice we make in life is really about looking for love, happiness, and contentment; we all desire those things. Of course, sometimes we go about that in very wrong ways, like trying to make more money (because we all know that makes people happy) or lashing out at someone who we felt wronged us (that really just makes us angry too).

For our little family, we believe our bliss can be found living for God and with God, as in nature, with the Earth, and with others in community. We believe that’s how humans were made to live. There isn’t the saying “it takes a village” for no reason. We are social beings, yet this culture we live in now is trying to separate and segment our lives so that we feel isolated and dependent. For example, when Jessica was working with refugees from other countries, they could see so clearly through our culture and would make comments like “Where are all the people?” when referring all the houses and seemingly empty neighborhoods, or “We need a TV because in my country we had community, but here the people use their TV as their community.” One family from Burma told Jessica that they cried for a month straight when they arrived in America because they felt so alone here. But we can change that. We, as humans, are changing, evolving. Many are realizing that the “American dream” is not a dream; it’s actually a nightmare that just puts people in more debt and leaves a longing for something more. Many are turning to a simpler way of life for themselves and their children. Just a year ago, when we were looking at intentional communities in the US, there were very few waitlists to join these communities. Now as we search, many have waitlists, especially for families.

Clearly more and more people want to raise their children in a different world. They want a world that nurtures the family, the individual and the earth, where children are able to learn about and experience real life, not watch “reality” on TV. They desire a world that doesn’t include a commercialized, “one size fits all” education for their children. They long for a simple, yet profound world that based on love and cooperation, not fear and competition. The Hare Krishnas’ had a philosophy of “simple living, high thinking.” They believed that we should spend our days simply praising God and his Creation. We can do this in many ways, like serving others, serving the land, and coming together in love. (And by the way, no we didn’t decide to become Hare Krishna. For numerous reasons, it just wasn’t the religion/way of life for us. But nevertheless, they were some wonderful and amazing people to be around.)

So we apologize if we sound negative sometimes about the culture we live in here in America, but we just believe so firmly in our hearts that this is not the answer for us, or for anyone. This culture is consuming, commercialized, materialistic, competitive, and fearful. It leads too many people to a life of debt, destruction, and longing for more. If you can’t see that, please look objectively and wake up to the realization around you. Please stop making up excuses in your head to justify it; listen to your heart. Know that you’re not too old to change, it’s not too late, you’re not too far in debt, you’re not too entrenched in it, you’re not stuck; there is always another option. There is always hope for a better life for all of us. We live in a world of abundance and love. Just look at nature, there’s always enough for the animals and plants; it’s the same for us, we just have to have faith, not fear, in God and in the abundance all around us.

So with that said, we are heading to our actual first farm community in a week from now. We are so thankful for our friends, the Hare Krishnas and Paul and Rebecca in Florida, as we hung around there because of weather and the community didn’t have any accommodations for us until April 1st. We’ll be heading three hours north of here to Koinonia, a Christian intentional living community, located in central Georgia. It will be nice to be around other families, as Elijah is getting so much more social, and loves being around other children. He can walk now too! (not very well yet, lots of bumps on the head) We’ll let you all know how it goes and whether humans can actually live together. We are very excited and hopeful!