Home Grown Happiness

Our little family has been on a roller coaster journery over the past 12 months, learning about homeed, learning about each other, learning to think (even more widely) outside of the main stream box;  I have been challanged beyond what I thought I was capable off, tired beyond belief on days, energised and revitalised on others.  These experiences have strengthened me - all of us - deeply.

Unexpectedly however, our home education journey has become more than opting out of state education in order to support our children; for many years we have danced around the edge of a more 'meaning-full' way of living, often asking ourselves the question 'is there more to life than this?'.  We have swayed between having nurturing, eco-strong, mindful approaches to life, and then back to a consumer driven, 4x4 driving (I do miss my ML a little though!), disposable life-style.   But something has changed - a road to Damascus moment perhaps - and we find ourselves not just dancing around the edge of living a mind-full life, but wishing to jump right on in to the dance floor and feel the music entirely!

So, like the butterflies I wrote about, we are slowly emerging from a chrysalis and thinking about our lives on a more concious level, and we have started on a process of change.  I have been hugely inspired by several things of late:

• an article in 'The Mother' entitled 'The Shadow Mother
• my time at The Mother Camp with my dearest, soulful, beautiful friend
• the book 'Women who run with Wolves'
• this amazing blog 'Rowdy Kittens' 
• the book 'The Life Organizer'  

You know you have struck a chord when something leaps of a page, grabs you and then - unexplainabley - causes you to cry, sob and release something that has been stuck, but you just didn't realise it.

"....accepting and embracing your quirky, dented, perfectly imperfect individual self".

Happiness is home-grown; it is found in the moments of quiet when your child is sleeping peacefully next to you.  It's in the morning walks when you take the time to notice the beauty that is under your nose.  It's in the repairing of a favourite t-shirt, the hand-made gifts, the stitches of the knitted baby hat, the eating of the chocolate courgette cake (made with love, using home grown vegetables).   It's in the warmth from the chiminea in the garden, whilst sitting under the stars.  It's in smile from the person you say good morning to - even though you don't know them.  It's in the sharing of a cup of tea with an old friend over the kitchen table.    Happiness does not come from money (just enough helps), or stuff (do I really need that), or shopping (is what your buying encouraging child labour), or watching other peoples lives on TV (reality 'stars' WTF?).  It does not come from living a life that makes you feel tired, that disconnects you from who you are, from your children, from your heart.

So, as we follow a a different path on our life journey, I hope to share our adventures with you.  We all have choices we can make (and I hope with my heart not to find myself judging others who make different choices to us),  but we dream we can find that there really is more to life than the modern worlds current approach.

Love angela xx