Friday 18 July 2014

How thank you can change your life


Seeing the gratitude in everything can change your world around.

And giving thanks where it's due can change someones else's life around too.






However small a deed, a thank you, a gift or a smile, small tokens of love, acceptance and gratitude can mean the world.

And the best time to offer up these small helpings of thanks are now.


Not tomorrow when something more important takes it place, not when you next get time to pick up the phone, the courage, the words.
Not even when it's a socially acceptable time to pop round.

The power of the word thank you can heal broken hearts, boost co-workers appreciation and make you feel light and gracious.

It can help someone let go on their journey of life, knowing that they were loved, heard and honoured.

The gift of thank you mends bridges previously torn down by the floodgates of taking for granted. Thank you opens your heart and whispers love notes from your energy field to another.


Thank you takes the plaster off and kisses the wound.


Rebuilding neural connections, completely rewiring our brains thought patterns takes time, but putting gratitude into our daily life will recondition and tone our neural networks. Establishing new beliefs takes time, about thirty days it's believed ...

When crises looms and chaos reigns, when your world turns inside out and wrings you dry, that's the time to look for the small mercies, the little parcels of light, that when unwrapped, burst forth into pinpricks of hope and merge into a blanket of warmth and comfort.

I give thanks to my children for coming into my life when I kiss them into their dreams, I give thanks to the challenges that greet me during the day, for the messages of moving forward in my life. I give thanks to the difficulties in my past, let them go and learn from the lessons. I give thanks to a cashier packing my bags, a stranger smiling at me in the street, my beloved for working. I give thanks to the loggers who took down all the trees in a scared space, for clearing the path of danger and the new beginnings that will come forward. I give thanks to the sun drying us out, giving us life. I give thanks to the bellbird gifting me with it's song, for the children's laughter, love and courage. I give thanks to my mum, my family, my life.

I give thanks to me.






And I feel happy finding the little things. They stitch themselves together and blow away the clouds of grey. The dark days that overbear our hearts, weigh down our souls, don't need much to evaporate into skies of gold.





  • When waking, before you throw the covers off your sleeping chamber, give thanks for your day and what it will bring. I love to thank the light, the warmth of my duvet, the love of my children who wake me with messages of adoration and starvation. I thank the firewood for keeping me warm and the activities in the day that will create opportunities for growth.
  • Giving thanks over our food for the cook, the growers, the worms transforming the soil, the bees for pollinating the flowers, the shopkeeper, the transporter or even just great things that happened in your day can lift the worse days in memory up a notch, letting the light at the end of the tunnel shine through, transforming and healing your darkest thoughts.




  • Thank you notes attached to well used areas of your workplace or home are great reminders. I have a sticker on my computer that asks me at every moment of distraction, what am I grateful for? The kitchen sink gives thanks for the water that flows freely from the taps and the alkaliser jug gives thanks for the health racing through my body. The night lamp by my bed gives thanks for the well deserved rest in dream land and the thank you note on the dashboard of my car gives thanks for the safe journey.
  • Little cards kept in a drawer next to a box of stamps and a pen are perfect for when a quick note of hand written appreciation can be sent. There and then. Not tomorrow when you have time. Think it, write it, send it.
  • A journal listing everything that you're grateful for at the end of a day is a gift of beauty in darker days.
  • My children gift me the most precious stones, wild flowers and feathers in love and gratitude. I love to collect small items of wonder, sea shells, driftwood, rosebuds, unused nests and keep them on display until a time when they can be passed on as a token of gratitude.


  • Smiling at a stranger, offering up a thank you to someone who troubles you, gifting a book with a bookmark of thank yous are other small ways to make someone else's day.
  • When my beloved and I received our NZ residency, we personally delivered the biggest bunch of peonies to our immigration officer. The astonished smile that radiated from her was more than we could have ever asked for.
  • Silent gratitude, being detached from the benefits of gratitude, is a path to inner liberation. Cleaning a friends home, delivering them a pre-prepared meal or dropping off an anonymous gift without the praise or recognition of the blessing can lift your joy higher.
  • Hand held moments in the form of hugs, time to talk with little post it notes of acknowledgment allow moments of intimacy overflowing with gratitude to form bonds, raise your vibration and start seeing the best outa life.
  • And when tucking yourself into your night dreams, giving thanks to everything that came your way will cast a hazy glow of light over your sleep, gifting you with a rest-full rejuvenation, sweet dreams and a key to unlock the door for a great tomorrow.

Giving thanks, blessing others will bring exactly what you want to experience into your life, saving your days for joy and harmony. By affirming gratitude in our lives and being thank-full for everything we let in, the more we will receive.


Friday 11 July 2014

It's your choice to work or play.



I don't wanna work, I'm a girl who just wants to have fun!
So, I've gonna changed my workdays into play days.






I choose to have my children at home full-time and I choose to be the home maker. I now choose to turn my passions into profit...and to enable me to do that, I need to know that I don't have to go to work when the children fall in a heap at the end of their day of fun, that when they are out and about with friends, I need to know that I don't have to go to work and miss out on play.

I need to know that I don't have to turn my day off … to work.









What I've chosen to do is to love my life, be with my children full time, to live my passions and dreams and to help others do the same. I've noticed that seeing my only day to myself as work has stopped my creative fire. Put a halt to the juice of life that otherwise seeps through my skin from my soul centre, radiating out from my cells and setting fire to someone else's passions.

Thinking about work makes me think that I have to do it, that it's toil and trouble, that it'll be hard and that it'll be an uphill slog. 

It's not that I see it this way all of the time, but the term work does have these connotations for me.

Turn it around then and let's play!

If we've chosen to do something that takes up the majority of the week, year, life, it should be something that we at the very least look forward to. 


None of these Monday mornings that loom half way through the weekend. 

None of this judgement towards ourselves that all we can do is work to be able to play. We all know that we should live to work not work to live, but how many of us put that into action?

Well, starting from today I am.

And I'm changing my workday to play day.

My day.







The day I get to be me. Not mum or wife or sister or daughter. Not councillor or friend or domestic goddess either.

Just me.

And who am I?
I'm a runner. I'm spirit. I'm a health junkie, a nature lover, a peace seeker. I'm a foodie, a writer, a researcher and a woman.




A woman who likes to have fun!
So, I put my plan into action today.



Having got my three children up and ready for a visit to the caves that navigate their way underneath the Crystal mountain dominating our valley, I handed over the reins to my beloved who'd just come in from work. Once they departed, I sat down for five minutes to breathe through the chaos.

Instead of my usual domestic chores taking charge of my body, mind and soul, even before my work day starts, I dug out my old running shoes. Before my head understood what I was doing, I legged it outa the door and ran down the hill in search of some adrenalin.

Once I reached the beach, I climbed the ghost of old macrocarpa, a beauty-full grandfather of a tree, the spirit moved on a long time ago. Stroking the limbs of the giant bleached bones of skeleton, I wandered my eyes lazily over the yellow sands dipping quietly beneath the ocean. Allowing my mind to flow on the messages of the wind, the trees bowing gently in answer, I felt myself soar, to become one with the landscape I've called home.






And when I came to, I legged it and popped by to see a neighbour who I wanted to pass on a message of love.

Hiking back up the hill to home, chatting with piwakawaka the fantail who hopped and flapped around me, I felt fully charged. Finishing off a ritual of togetherness, I showered, nourished myself with a green smoothie and set to tinkle with the ivories of my faith-full companion, a day of playing with words mapped out in front of me.






And the funny thing is, my exercise, meditation, social needs and self care took a full hour, although the time immersed in these personal endeavours ran away and gave me an extra morning. Instead of perpetually loosing time on household chores and work, I gained a morning and a full battery pack to power me through the rest of the day.



Sunday 29 June 2014

knowing there's always a way










For my 43rd birthday, I’ve gifted myself with two offices!


Two places to play with words, to be still, to turn my passions into profit.

My heart is so full and my present is bounding with enthusiastic projections! Trying to sit still in the moment and reflect on this momentous stepping stone, I can’t believe I didn’t make it happen before.

I got caught up for a while with my present situation being too hard. Not able to rent office space in a town too far away, not able to leave the kids and not willing to work through the night anymore. Being saddled with limited internet data, a husband who works away in another's home and unwilling to send the kids to school.

I could feel the grinding wheels of creation wind down and a kinda despondency settling over my once thinking outa the box head.

And then I was gifted my answer.

I decided a while back I would find an extra housing limb; a caravan, house bus, yurt, something I could work in that wouldn't be far from home...a place I could snatch moments of solitude, moments of me, a palace to create the wonders of the universe in.

And then having dreamt it, I forgot about it.

I wrapped that dream up, and let it go.


And it came back... fully wrapped in wonder and sparkly bits. Friends heard the whispers of my plea and gifted me a birthday present of epic proportion. A way to make my next years passion projections come true. (Thank you Emma and Rob x)

And so this is how I come into my 43rd year with two office spaces! 


One office is away from home. The Creation Space.


I have no phone, no fax and no internet. There’s no music, no dishes and no must have conversations.

No distracting procrastination tools.

No way of checking in with emails. No ‘researching’ for blog material. No photo editing suite. No skype, no facebook, no google.

no time wasting!


My workspace is filled with creative energy.

The present.

Dreams.

Peace.

A wood burner, electricity and a kettle.

And I’m graced by a grapefruit tree, macadamias, feijoa, dandelion and plantain. I think I may bring my freebie blender here too.

My commute, a track through the bush from home to the valley below.

The distance to travel to the office isn’t far enough so I’m gonna take the long route to work via the beach and grab a run while I’m at it. 


That way, when I open up my laptop I’ll be buzzing with negative ions, the 'must to do' list blown away and replaced with the TO-DAY list of present, proactive choices.

The creek thunders past my creation space, a 1979 Bedford housebus, this post-storm morning. 
Bird song filters through, warming the wooden walls with rays of sun, through rose strewn windows and the sea rests in debris after its 24hour rage with the wind.







I’ve popped to the pottery next door and gifted myself with a hand-thrown amalgama fired, salt glazed mug and bowl and filled jars with tea, trail mix and overflowed the bowl with kiwi fruit and persimmons.






A box of inspirational books, affirmations and my present goal list sits next to me, marking out a new present. 
My journal, a sketch pad and crayons sit in a box ready to come out and play.


This is where I'll spend 15 hours a week, working full time on my projects.


My second office is back where I started this morning, up the hill at home. The Connection Space.








It's gonna be in the belly of the spaceship in the family room. 
I’m nicking the girls craft space and gifting them with the energy room that I bagged first.


This is where my phone and internet will be when it arrives at the beginning of next month. This is where I can research, email, play and connect with the outside world.







This is the mothership.

Where I can be surrounded by the love of the family bubble, a gentle reminder to what comes first in my life.

Keeping my balance real.

And there it is. My success template.



REMEMBERING THERE'S ALWAYS A WAY

(IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO PURSUE MY DREAMS)


CREATE THE DREAM, LIVE IT IN YOUR MIND, THEN WRAP IT UP AND WISH IT WELL AS IT FLYS OFF

CATCH IT WHEN IT RETURNS WITH WIDE ARMS AND A FULL HEART



A quiet place devoid of distraction for creation
A hub of positive activity for connection.

Ensuring that I use my commuting time as ‘free’ exercise time and gifting myself with a space for only me, there’s little left to procrastinate with!


Friday 27 June 2014

surfing the web is not a form of exercise!


                                                                                               Brendon Burchard. Live.Love.Matter

All my adult life folk have been bangin' on about how bad drugs are.


Then there's smoking and over eating.

And of course... don't forget alcohol, only as so many people love this one and it's totally legal, social and needed it's not so readily bitched about.

And anyhow, you're a bit of a weirdo if you don't titilate in the odd glass of something when out celebrating.

Well. How about this one?
TV
The boob tube
The black hole of mediocrity.
That objet d'art sitting in the corner, looming over you, pressing you to switch it on, melt into its rays of darkness ... go on, just one more time!

And if you do manage to stay strong and throw a cover over it so it doesn't feel as if it's so obviously burning a hole in your back...there's always the world wide web to watch over your moments of solitude.


The Black Hole is where our time gets sucked into. 

We all get 24 hours a day to do whatever it is we wish to do.
And even if you have to work an average of 8 hours a day...there's always 16 more to fill in.

8 hours to work
8 hours to sleep
8 hours for yourself


Think of the possibilities out there waiting to explode into your expansive new life!

All you've gotta worry about is how wisely you're gonna use this time. 


  • Making a weekly timetable ensuring you get exercise, fun times, rest and building a life outa your passions is one way of stopping the slippery slope of descent into the void of other peoples intentions.
  • Setting a timer by your computer when checking emails, facebook, your favourite blogs.
  • Making a TO DAY list with your absolutely must do's separate from the like to do's ...ie/ checkin' in with facebook!
  • Priotising a time in the day for emails, then giving yourself a set time of let's say, half an hour.
  • Treating yourself to one DVD night a week, something that you have chosen to enhance your life.


 ... and remember next time you say there's no time to fit what you want to do in your life, surfing the web is not gonna get yah fit for life!


Tuesday 13 May 2014

standing in my strength





Unconditionally loving and nurturing myself was high on my agenda for mothers day. It's not something I scratch into my weekly timetable of events, figuring that eating healthy, thinking consciously and occupying a present state of being will get me through the short and curlies of life.


Throwing aside my families needs and looking after number one is difficult for me to do. I'm hardwired to look after all in my circle. 

It's a persistent trait handed down through the generations of mothers of mothers of mothers. And journeying in the well grooved path of attachment parenting for the past nine years I've been aware my tanks were veering on the outa control empty side...with a yellow light flashing!

Having high expectations on how I'd like my life to fall into place often lands me in trouble. 

Waiting for others to do as I'd like, rarely turns out the way I've intended, and tired of the routine of blame and martyrdom, I decided to take the day into my own hands. 

Instead of lowering my sights, I've decided to keep my highly positive outlook on life and work on the desired outcome myself.

That's when I booked my sacred feminine yoga retreat, a nurturing all woman retreat falling on a weekend of epic proportions!

Having done some research, and looked into the how-to-do and can-i-fit-it-in bits, I called a family huddle (a bit like a meeting but with a more loving title and perhaps more to the point!) 

I asked if it would be alright if I booked myself into Anahata yoga retreat 

... just for the night. 

I'd be walking into a programme two thirds of the way through, so wouldn't be gone long. 

And I promised to be home after lunch on Mothers day. 

After the initial disappointment that they wouldn't be able to have breakfast in bed and smooches all day with mama, the children moved on quickly to more exciting aspects of their Sunday ... a community meal and celebration, apple picking and hanging out with playmates.






Managing to organise my family's full schedule of weekend delights, I created meals in advance, made a mothers day cake for all to indulge in, organised playdates and football to fall in place, as I crammed in time for myself. 

Knowing I was missing an epic party celebrating a friends 40th and a celebration honouring a friend being initiated into the land we live on, followed by celebrations and rounded off with a community afternoon of apple picking made it easier for the children knowing that they were doing something more fun than watching mama lay around in bed. 

And as I'd made my bed ... I just had to let go and know that I was doing the right thing.

Driving up the never ending road to the sacredness of the mountain, I felt the time restraints clatter behind me, and my wheels took on wings as I left the day to day world to the hazy horizon. The more creeks I crossed and the more farm gates I opened and closed, I allowed myself to settle into a place of nurturing me, challenging myself to transition into woman ...not mama, not wife or friend. 


Just me.


And through massage exchange, meditation, yoga practice, sacred sound, dance and ritual, I found myself longing for more time to be me.







Expanding my heart, opening myself up through silence and intentional thought and creating space through stilling my mind, let me let go, just be me, without any interruptions, excuses or weaning myself off other's expectations.

And when I walked through the orchard on Sunday afternoon to a gaggle of friends of all ages hanging out in the trees, under a beauty-full lit Autumn day, I wholly realised the gift of unconditional love and nurturing. 

My tanks overspilling with gratitude and love, my children hurled themselves at me as a human blanket, my beloved cloaked me with his arms and I fully took in the beauty-full scene of a community coming together, each celebrating the divine feminine as one.


















Tuesday 6 May 2014

hard work paying off


my babies planting out their babies


 My mouths droolin' and I keep stroking my babies. We're only eating a few a day, but this gives us so much delight that we bless each and every one for the energy they give.


"You're so jammy, the lucky one, the one that everything falls into your lap." I've been told this countless times throughout my life.

"You're wasting your life, you're  a bum, luck will not always be at your side" are other snippets of wisdom that I've let fall along the way.

"You're so lucky, you have the time, the husband, the money, your health."

Where these are all kinda true, they don't define my success. 

I don't use the word luck or jammy or other such words that make me feel that I'm not in charge of my destiny. Instead, I look up to my dreams and snap them into place with a few simple guidelines to help fill my sails.


AIM HIGH WITH CLEAR VISION

GRAB TOOLS

CREATE WITH DISCIPLINE

KEEP THE DREAM IN SIGHT

FOCUS WITH RESILIENCE AND PASSION


and this is how we find ourselves with an awesomely growing garden...coming into winter.


Realising life would be tricky for us living with a fridge, an electrical junkie that would rob us of all our power, one of the first goals hot off the 'be doing' list was to create gardens ... from scratch.

This meant finding a suitable location near the house, clearing the site, carting up trailer loads of poo, seagrass, compost, drift wood, river stones and top soil up to our launch pad, roll up our sleeves and get to work.

original piece of dirt


And have fun!

laying cardboard after digging out area


Knowing that we would be fed abundantly by freshly plucked greens gave me a huge incentive to carry out this project. Being in the present and taking the project step by step allowed me to not be put off by such a great challenge.

For sanity during the heat of summer, various cold box projects have kept us entertained. 

The laundry sink now has a lid on it with polystyrene duct-taped to the underside, complete with a driftwood handle. Old polystyrene deli boxes with ice packs that are rotated every few days allow raw chocolate to set, two terracotta pots filled with sand and soaked with water keep the milk fresh. 

The shorter, damper days are now seen with a positive slant now that cakes can set outside, kombucha and kimchee sit smugly in the outdoor toilet and leftovers go straight to the bunny!





And now, as I talk to my dark, leafy greens that get soaked in the autumn downpour and are stroked by the beams from the afternoon sun, I look back at our progress, what we've learned along the way and expand with joy that this gardening lark aint that hard after all.












Monday 7 April 2014

figureheads

Haunui, waka hourua


"So, you think that homeschooling is all about making money do you? It's kids like you that should be in school."



On lookout for daddy who was greeting an ocean-voyaging waka with his team of waka ama paddlers, we basked our bodies on the breakwater of Tarakohe's port yesterday.

Mirrored waters in the harbour reflected back to us the beauty of stingrays and snapper idling and gliding, and my children drifting around the steep rocky walls, seals, cormorants and penguins on radar, hanging out at the penguin nesting holes that they'd help build 18 months ago.




We had a good wait.

Four hours with little food, toys or techno games.

No wingeing, no boredom, only an underground growling of excitement as we watched a rare event unfold before us.




Haunui, an ocean waka, sailing around New Zealand spreading messages of sustainability, oceanic conservation and raising awareness of climate change was billed at arriving 'around the middle of the day'.





Locals came and went, ready to greet the waka hourua to the shores of our Golden Bay.

Schools of children played tag as their allotted time restraints kept them playing relay, teachers shuttling flotillas to and from school.

Some sat the day out, mixing the autumnal rays with a shot of conversation, making friends, talking about celestial navigation, maori culture and life.

Others left frustrated that the double hulled waka's crew of sixteen had not phoned, face booked or text through exact times of their ETA.

And two slightly weathered figureheads graciously dressed for the occasion in lilac hats, sat upon the prow of the rocky arm, accepting polite enthusiasms regarding their attire from my children.

Three pirates wooing ladies with their play-full endeavours, conversation skills and eagerness to watch their daddy flank a cultural symbolism of hope and peace.

Talk of overfishing, maori tales and how to catch the perfect crab seemingly had them hook, line and sinker.

Until the elders launched an attack on why they weren't in school.

"We don't go to school," piped up the eldest Peter Pan
"Mummy homeschools us," charged in the second.
"Bum bum hair!" anchored the third.


 "So, Mummy teaches you does she? What does she teach you?' asked the lilac hat.
"Mummy doesn't TEACH us," mentions the eldest. "She just lets us play."

Silence.

A bloodcurdling cry from an overhead seabird echoes my thoughts.

Allowing themselves to be steered into conversation by my charmingly honest three, the two proud ladies gradually fell apart as they found out that not only did the children learn life through living it, sailing the seas of practicality, action and knowledge, but my eldest had her own business and had more money than mummy!

Having then equipped their astounded audience with the finer details of household finances and how they were going to contribute to the family's economic path, the ladies forcefully stood up, brushed down their skirts and put on authoritative faces.







"Life's not about making money Miss, and if you went to 
school where you belong then you would know this."

Not to be taking prisoner, a rebuke from my daughter, "But we just want Daddy home. If he has to be the one making the money, then he's too tired to play. If we all make our own money doing what we love to do, then we can all play all the time."



With that, the figureheads disengaged themselves from their anchored place of prominence and set sail, sensing a battle they'd initiated had totally backfired in their wake.




Unperturbed, the sea-nymphs took up positions in their crows nest and hulla-balloed as their captain of the seas paddled close to Haunui, the waka hourua bringing her home to Golden Bay.





Saturday 5 April 2014

the rhythm of Life

Rhythmic dancing






Three months into crash-landing into our new nest in the trees, carrying the wonder condition known as TMJ, stopped me in my runaway flight path. Looking into this dis-ease created insight into what I already knew. It was time to lay aside the non-stop nurturing to all and sundry and start looking after my beloved me.

Who was me?

It’s been a while since I played with her!

Almost a decade into attachment parenting with three children … and all that comes in the package of baby-wearing, co-sleeping, long term breast feeding, child-led unschooling, natural birthing, eating and living, it was easy to fall into the trap that that was me.

All of me.

But becoming disabled by such a painful condition led me back inside myself as bedtime was before the children’s, meals were avoided due to being unable to chew, headaches allowed me to put down my books, computer, friendships and consult the inner child.

For weeks on end.

What a positive outcome!

Boxes left to unpack themselves, a home used as a camp ground, I got into the more pleasureable task of what used to make me tick. 

What fired me up, coursed electricity through my skin, encased me in bliss and contentment.

A few things came up … and one of those loves of my life has now materialised into my week, honouring me and the hungry child within.





Dance.

I LOVE to dance.

It releases unwanted emotion, collects bliss and creates a harmony I have yet to find in other places. 

I will take any form …zumba, disco, dance parties or aerobics. 

But I have found the most expressive form for me as last night a clutch of our community came together in a wave, dancing to the five rhythms.

Wallowing in the warm, calm waters of stretching and fluidly moving our bodies to the beginning of a sequence of music that peaked with its white maned horses crashing us through the dance studio.

The sun setting over the Bay’s pulsating waves below us, the trees gently enveloping us into their own production, collectively moving to the rhythm of the wind, allowed me to reach deep inside and, without voyeurs lurking in shadows, explode with an energy that was needing to fly from within and radiate out to a collective energy force encircling the room in a crescendo of life.


Being brought back to earth calm, filled with energy and with smiles that had been seductively stretched across our faces, my friends and I returned up the hill, crashing our way through the absolute darkness of thick native bush feeling every bit myself, content and well exercised.





Saturday 29 March 2014

Living Life More: the simple life

Living Life More: the simple life: Simplicity abounds around here. A beauty-full octagon building made with strong native timbers, large windows allowing the natural light t...

the simple life

Simplicity abounds around here.

A beauty-full octagon building made with strong native timbers, large windows allowing the natural light to filter through the shadows at different times of the day.

The manuka forests standing erect, bowing only to the sweet kiss of the warm breeze that skitters across the crystal-laid roof of our home.

The gentle, panoramic view of the calm waters of the Bay, with a smudge hinting at land across the lagoon, with long white clouds resting their weary load on the top of the peaks of the other national park we're graced by.

The peace of the day.
The ever present cicadas sing their three day love song, no trains, planes or automobiles flatlining a persistent hum....none of a refrigerator, TV or radio station blurring the present time of being.

The solar panels lounge in the heat, sucking in the light, slurping it deep into the body of Tui T'Mala.

And as the ever persistent skies of summer turn white with tones of grey, an ever present nagging feeling in my belly says 'I told yah so!"

Waking for the first time this morning with no power would not normally facilitate such a deep response. In the past, phoning the power company, neighbours or landlord to rectify the problem ... or rather pass-it-on, would have sufficed. This dark morning's glower however, was all up to me.

Placing candles around the breakfast table and pulling out seaweed crackers and hastily creating raspberry chia jam for the children's fast breaker, gifted me the most extraordinary of looks from routine-rutted clients at my walk-in diner.
The head torch produced a choreographed drama of donning head gear for similar effects by my voyeurs.

'Mama's being weird, let's be nice to her today.' A whisper slipped from my eldest's lips.

My forhead lighting up the inverter box told me that we had indeed run outa power in our batteries. The one's that we're meant to care for and nurture with sunlight, keeping their bellies filled for future power usage.

Ooops!

The red light persistently winking at me, not letting on. The answer was not found in the book of jargon either, a concise life-history of our solar system.

Seeing the lesson immediately helped me to identify the problem and attempt to solve it.


If we keep putting energy out without caring for our back-up systems; not filling them with love, sunlight and peace ... then when our first port of call runs dry, where do we go to fill-up?

Indeed.

I have been there before. 
And a physical or mental breakdown is the usual response. Whether that lurks in the form of a cold, mental instability or dis-ease. Without nurturing our dear selves with whatever makes us tick, with a lie-in, a night out with mates, a weekend climbing or splashing out on a retreat, we too can run outa power and grind to a halt.

In today's case it meant working out how to isolate the inverter from the batteries, to stop our greedy household appliances guzzle the sweet nectar of life and suppling generated power to the support system of our powered up home. 

Without this we've no green smoothies or juices, the dehydrator has it's siesta while the crackers and breads fizz and ferment in the afternoon, as the sun delivers it's fanfare of an otherwise overcast day.

No power to google the problem's solution, only trust and common sense that leaving the generator on while I 'popped' into town, a four hour vacation from the simple life, would not over tax the battery supply but at the very worst would use up all the fuel.

And that was the answer. 

After several weeks of nagging intuition, prompting me to look into this up and coming headache, I managed to find the time to declutter my overflowing brain for long enough to flick a couple of switches, illuminating the present and heading outa the door throwing whole fresh foods at the children and heading to market for the day. 

With a cacophony of delights in town and friends positively enthused about the glowing autumnal day, the morning horrors of damaging our powers life support system faded into the non present and I sucked up the abundant energy exchanged in conversation, simply shopped for organic seedlings to plant in my ever growing kitchen garden and watched tour tribes children fill themselves with the power of love, sunshine and friendship, banking it in their holding systems to draw on in future gloomy days.

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Busy being























We’re living our dream.

It’s not quite as fluid as when you fall asleep and live in your subconscious, but the dream of ocean views, beauty-full home nestled deep in the natural world of the south island of New Zealand, living in intentional community, off the grid and on the boundaries of our intended national park is keeping us firmly living on mama earth.

We finally got here and it didn’t take too long once we got clear with our goals!






So, now we’re tucked into our spaceship, we’re having to bend our knowledge and conscious thoughts to making the universal jigsaw complete.




And sometimes this gets messy!

Finding out we needed to buy a 4WD to get to the property.

Not forgetting to add a towbar so that we could get everything we needed on a trailer to get up the hill.

Then a mobile phone as otherwise, at the very least, the community that we live in couldn’t contact us (it’s a bit of a climb to get to us at the top.)

The 'complete lack of top soil so we have to get some quick' to create gardens so that we don’t need the fridge that we haven’t got!




The fridge that we need doesn’t come along too often second hand…three way or gas…either one will set us back a few thousand dollars.


Starting from scratch, the community has enabled us to settle in comfortably by helicoptering a water tank in so that we could be on the creeks water supply with a solar panelled pump,





laying pipes to ensure the water can get to where it needs to go to. 

WOOFERS removing concrete rubble from the old water catchment pool so that the tractor can get through to do the work.






A fire installed,





a deck fence built, 






a bathroom facility made functional, 





a bedroom built outa the workshed that now adjoins the original bedroom with steps leading up to a door. 








Electricity connected, 

additional solar panels and battery back up, 

a cave for the generator.

The list has been relentless..and there’s still a good deal of work to be getting on with.

Meanwhile, adjusting our food preparation is an ongoing process.

Living with a super dooper vitamix and dehydrator on solar means that relying on dehydrated breads, wraps and crackers has fallen away to seeing these foods as treats.






Raw chocolate alchemy comes into force using the night garden as a fridge to set the sweet treats, making only what is needed at each meal and to eat an abundance of fresh foods economically.








Gardens have been made from scratching around the clay hill, enabling us to gather our food at it’s best…collecting sea grass, horse poo and top soil, cutting back the bush to not only safeguard the house from potential fire damage, but allowing us to create more space for more edible plants.







Frequent trips to the paddocks of this land, collecting bundles of dandelion, plantain and cleavers, the orchard for our seasonal fruit and the bush for lesser known wonders of the plant family feeding us each the minerals our bodies yearn for.





Filling our bellies aside, filling our home only with furnishings eagerly found at garage sales, classifieds and the local tip, we’re luxuriously living in other peoples junk … hand made tapestry curtains, oak dressers, shell-inlaid rimu dining chairs and table, Turkish rugs, fine tableware, plants and outdoor furniture.











Creating a home outa literally nothing is filling us up inside, opening our hearts, creating new friendships, reusing otherwise landfill refuse and using trade as a better system to hard cash where we all benefit from the exchange.







I will be opening our doors to you, charting our journey of living in our spaceship, high up in the trees overlooking a Bay steeped in European history, retelling the everyday stories of our dream as the vision uncurls like the baby ferns surrounding us.







Stories of unschooling, living off grid, project managing, building gardens, tree houses, climbing constructions, creating food, living in intentional community, building an underground greenhouse, outdoor bathrooms and having the time of our lives just being.