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Trains travel over mountains and through towns, cities and fields often fading into the background of most people’s day-to-day life. Sitting at a height of fifteen feet, from the top of the cab of a locomotive, to the top of the rail, the types of views we trainmen get to enjoy are numerous. I remember my first experience of traveling at seventy miles per hour in one of these behemoths. I was a training conductor taking an intermodal stack train from Roseville to Bakersfield. It was a foggy trip, and I immediately noticed, when I climbed into the cab of the old SD70, that I could barely make out the top of the tracks in front of us. The thick fog combined with the height of the locomotive reminded me of being in a cloud. As the trip commenced, and we traveled further south I noticed the fog had become much thicker. At seventy miles an hour it felt, I imagined at the time, like what taking a World War two bomber through clouds in heavy turbulence must feel like! I’ve been asked by plenty of people what traveling in the cab of a big train feels like and my answer ever since is that “it feels like flying in a plane, at low altitude in heavy turbulence”, and that’s exactly what it feels like.
I have spent a great deal of time in the last seven years at that height, in a small cab watching the world go by. Sometimes when we would get stopped (which is often) we would spend the time watching people living their own life, without them realizing that they had gained an audience. There aren’t very many places where gates or walls are tall enough to block a trainman’s view(regardless if it was something we wanted to see or not). Because we work a job that is crucial to the economy, and as such requires us to be able to access Ports and city centers, we get the joy of traveling through both poor and rich neighborhoods. You probably wouldn’t believe the things I have seen people doing in their own back yards lol. From skinny dipping to elderly raves, failed DIY back yard projects, to full fledged backyard homesteads, with pigs, cows, chickens and horses in suburban neighborhoods! I’ve seen it all!
People are funny, unique and hardworking, and the difference between a rich neighborhood and a poor neighborhood isn’t much, when you compare their back yards rather than their front yards. Anything is possible outside of the view of the HOA lol. The longer I was on the railroad, I was able to start noticing trends in the thousands of back yards I went by on the tracks every year. Many people don’t take care of their own yards, in general the vast majority just work at keeping the visible parts somewhat nice. From the visual evidence the more visible the back yard is, the better kept they typically are. This, however is only the case if the yard is visible to the surrounding neighbors, who themselves in appearance take “good care” of their own yards. I think this is fascinating and offers evidence of a few things.
One, people care about looking good to other people who they want to emulate.
Two, if peoples own shortcomings are similarly acceptable to their neighbors, then the motivation to grow out of those shortcomings is virtually non-existent.
Three, the power of community is a tangible tool that can either be used to motivate growth, or to justify shortcomings.
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God created us to support and encourage each other. He designed us to be able to do this without even words, by merely existing alongside each other our actions can directly impact the lives of others. The elements that need to be pointed out, is that people who don’t embrace trying to grow themselves, inevitably encourages others to except not growing too; whereas people that embrace their own struggle, regardless of their circumstances will most definitely encourage others to do better! The early homesteaders worked hard, faced fear and didn’t let excuses stop them. They embraced struggle and as a direct result of their independence, principles, work ethic (and with their wild faith), inspired great nations to be established!
I started Wild Faith Journey LLC because of God’s call on my life, and on all of our lives to live a life with Wild Faith and independence on His word. That by living this way we can encourage each other by our actions! I recognize the beauty in everyone’s Wild Faith Journey and I want to share those Journey’s with the world, to steward the lessons we can all gain from them. We have wonderful examples of people and companies that can encourage us everyday. I’ll continue to share my family’s Wild Faith Journey as well as anyone else who lets me. Encouragement is desperately needed today, with all the fear mongering and complacency in the world. We only have one life to live and I want to spend the rest of min encouraging others!
I have started to, and will continue to write about homesteaders, ranchers and farmers. Their lifestyle understands better than most what it means to have Wild Faith and Independence. I come from a long line of farmers and this topic is near and dear to my heart. I'll also write about full-time Rv living, homeschooling, hunting, and my own homesteading on wheels because that’s my day-to-day life! I am not a pastor and this is not a non profit, but rest assured I will still be giving God All the glory and this will be apparent throughout any article or video I post. He is the reason for it all! If you see ads on my site, or social media it’s because this all-costs money and responsible stewardship to produce. In order to provide for my family and the pursuit of this dream, I have monetized the business through affiliate marketing, collaborations and drop shipping. I’m new to all this, so the content and products may reflect that at times lol, but if you have any advice I’ll gladly take it! I and my family are so excited for this opportunity to pursue and share our own Wild Faith Journey with you all! If you have an inspiring story you want to share with the world, please reach out to me! Growth through Community and Testimony is what were all about!
-Wild Faith Jake