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Rural California is all Kristin Windbigler knows as a child — its wild, green pastoral landscape, where living off the land and self-sufficiency is a choice to live abundantly. One evening, gathered around the television with her mom and dad, Kristin watches a news report that suggests families like hers, living below the poverty line, are in critical need of help. What the TV journalist misses is that it’s possible to live abundantly without a big paycheck, without the need for anything other than what the land and community already provide. The news report sends Kristin on a path to tell deeper, multi-dimensional stories. She ends up in San Francisco and discovers that city-living has its own charm, before coming home to country life where she is today. The stories Kristin shares are American narratives that add up to a universal truth: when we people work together to solve urgent problems, our differences fall away.

Listen to Waddie Mitchell’s episode of Meditative Story, "A cowboy’s rules for living": https://listen.meditativestory.com/WaddieMitchellWindbigler

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

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