"Once you've been in Serenity you never leave. You just learn to live there." - Captain Malcom Reynolds

It has taken me a few days to write this article, more than I had hoped, but less than I expected. Right now the children are asleep, the animals have been taken care of, and there is peace in the house. A glass of bourbon and some dark chocolate sit at my side. Breathe in. Breathe out. Relax.

My name is Brian. I am a 49-year-old husband, father, and son. I am a nurse and a homesteader. I also am a human being, complete with fears, hopes, and dreams. I am not a writer. That being said, I am attempting to write and like I mentioned above, that comes complete with fears, hopes, and dreams. You might look at the title of this post and wonder why those three words. My life, as it is now, encompasses all three of those. Let me see if I can explain.

HOMESTEADING:

Until recently I have lived all of my life in the suburbs. I was born in a suburban hospital and I have lived all 49 years of my life within a 15-mile radius of that hospital. How common is that? That doesn't seem normal, but I assume it is more the case than not. I can say this for sure, it definitely impacted how I looked at life. "When I went to your schools, your churches, I went to your institutional learning facilities?!" Sorry, I digress. Blame the Suicidal Tendencies reference on my suburban upbringing. I guess you could say I felt trapped. I felt as if I was born into this system and I couldn't break out. I married in the system, had two beautiful children in the system, and got divorced in the system.

That all changed when I met my current wife, my second wife, the wife I love more than I could ever express. I do try to express it; every day. She gave me the freedom to be myself, to grow, to love, to dream. And one of those big dreams was to get the hell out of the suburbs! While we were figuring it out, we had a child. We thought about moving to Alaska. Then we had a second child. Thought about moving to Vermont. We realized maybe we were thinking of escaping so much, we weren't giving proper credit to where we live already, Missouri. Yeah, yeah, I know. But, the growing season is pretty nice and if we are lucky, we get snow in the winter. We just needed to adjust the focus a bit.

We started growing food in our backyard, practiced while we looked for someplace new. We read everything we could get our hands on about the lifestyle we wanted. We remodeled our house nearly top to bottom. All the time we were searching for that piece of property that would be just right. We didn't know what it would look like. We had some vague ideas, but we were malleable. Then one day a property popped up that we just had to look at, it was just listed that day. We got a hold of our realtor and the next day we took a trip to look at the place. When we got there, we found out they already had three offers on the table. The place was perfect for us. They already had three offers on the table. The price was well below our budget. They already had three offers on the table. What was there to do, but make an offer ourselves. I also wrote the owner a letter, explaining why we wanted her to consider our offer and what we planned to do with it. Long story short; I am writing this piece while I sit in the front living room of the house on that property. Dreams do come true. We named the property Serenity. You can follow our adventures on our Facebook page here at Serenity Homestead

VOLUNTARYISM:

You know when you hear a word, you think you really know what it means? That is what I thought about the word "Anarchy". All those "Anarchists" did was throw molotov cocktails and destroy things. I had no idea. Of course; mainstream media and the authority figures in my life made sure to let me know I was correct in my thinking, they reinforced it. I didn't even bother to pick up a dictionary and verify it. That is how sucked into the system I was. This one here hurts: I helped to collect money for the local police department to support purchasing bullet-proof vests for the drug dogs. I admit it. I am not proud of it. The kicker of all of this is, I knew in my heart I was wrong. I just couldn't put my finger on it. I refer you to my statement above; I felt I was born into this system and I couldn't break out.

Enter again, my beautiful wife. Did I mention to you yet that I love her passionately? Is it too corny of me to say she completes me? Maybe you the readers are too young to remember that quote. She was the key that gave me the courage to break out of the system. I learned the definition of "Anarchy" and realized that was exactly what I believed. I had been an "Anarchist" forever and didn't even know it. The media and societal institutions still use the term in the wrong way, but I do what I can to educate and help others to break out of the system. I consider myself an Anarchist of the compassionate school of thought. I am an Agorist. I am a Voluntaryist; I believe all human interaction should be consensual.

LOVE:

Well, what really more is there to say here. Love is the key folks. Love will set us free. It set me free. My wife gave me love and allowed me to love in return. I still have fears, hopes, and dreams. I know now though that with love, compassion, and joy that all things are possible. If you care to follow along, I will do my best to share what I hope will become a body of work that celebrates what it means to be human.