Presents
A Webzine Created and Edited by 
Number 8
Table of Contents
"Where dreams are the
stuff reality is made of"
Explorations
by , Editor
"Homesteading"
Last month I talked about how my journey to be a woman had
finally ended after a lifetime of yearning and five years of travel. But what happens
AFTER the journey ends? Once you find yourself where you always wanted to be, what then?
The quest to discover who you really are is not unlike many other epic adventures.
For a parallel, lets look to the pioneers of the American
West. They, as we, had plenty to leave behind. Most were business people, family members,
participants in organizations and clubs. For the most part, they had not ventured farther
than the next county before in their lives. So what drove them to embark on a dangerous
trip into the unknown, from which they might never return? What would move them to leave
behind all that they had ever known, all the comforts of home and the relationships they
cherished, just for the chance at a new life?
The question holds the answer: they left for a new life - a
new beginning that might lead to something better than before. They did not hate what they
were leaving; they simply saw the limitations of what they had and the potential of what
the might find.
So, they packed their belongings and sold what they could
not take. They said goodbye to loved ones they might never see again, turned to wilderness
and stepped bravely into the unknown.
Bravery is not to act without fear, but to act in spite of
it. Our pioneer ancestors were not fools. They did not make the decision to leave lightly,
nor did they minimize the risks. But they felt that the potential rewards outweighed those
risks. So they held their fears in abeyance and bravely let go of a normal life.
Yet the risks were very real, and many were lost along the
way. There were those who had hardly just begun before they were stricken, and others who
succumbed just as they glimpsed the Promised Land, never to set foot upon it. Even for
those who arrived safely, the effort itself changed them forever.
Most of these pioneers only had a vague idea of where they
were going: a state or a territory, no more specific than that. So, how did they know when
they arrived? When they crossed one more range and saw below them a green valley, or a
wooded plain, or a seashore, or hill. And something about that vision matched the picture
they had in their minds when they started. They stood on the mountain crest, drank in the
dream made real and said, "We have come home."
You see, there really was no destination until it was found.
And what defined the destination was their decision to stop there. For some, it was just
what they had been hoping for. For others, it was the best they found before their
motivation ran out. The longer the journey, the greater the toll.
This was my story last month as I had crossed a final
divide, took a look around and said "I have come home". But what now?
Once our pioneer ancestors arrived they didn't just sit in
their rocking chairs and watch the seasons change. No, the same motivation that lured them
from the secure comforts of the old life, drove them to make something of the new.
These hardy individuals, men and women and children, did not
pause to rest in the shade, but immediately began a new quest: to build a home in this new
land - a home that would be all they had yearned for. Just arriving didn't bring the
reward of a better life than they had left, it just gave them the opportunity for one. But
now the real work had to begin.
But it was a work of joy because they reaped the benefits of
their own toil. This was a land in which one person could make a difference. A land of
freedom and potential. But with that freedom came the threat of the wild. Seasons could be
harsh, and wolves could kill. Yet through it all, the joy prevailed. They cleared, and
built and planted and reaped. And there came a day when the harvest was in and there was
more than they needed. This was the day they could pause in their labors and celebrate the
bounty of the land. But then, it was back to work again, for one harvest never hold enough
to carry until the next without continued effort.
In the end, their happiness was not measured so much by what
they had, but by how they lived, and the times they shared with others.
We too are pioneers - Social Pioneers. And we leave behind
all that we know and love, for all that we dream and yearn for. We face the dangers and
some are lost along the way. Those who survive cross one last divide to find the place
they will call home. Like our ancestors, we Social Pioneers have been changed by the
experience, but have not lost our dreams. Still, those dreams are not fulfilled by ending
one journey, but by beginning another. Now that we are here we have a frontier to tame:
the New Frontier of the human spirit. It can be no less treacherous than the wilds of the
continent, but its potential rewards are no less great.
So, I have set down stakes. I am clearing, building, and
planting. God willing and the creek don't rise, there'll be fields in the Spring and a
harvest in the fall. Perhaps one season there will be enough extra to pause awhile and
celebrate. And if I am so blessed, I can think of no greater joy than to share that moment
with you, my sister Social Pioneers of the New Frontier.
--- Copyright 1993,
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