With a steaming mug of pumpkin spice tea next to me, I’m joining you once again. Two seasons have passed since my last blog post. I had material a plenty but felt I needed time to just be in the moment. Instead of capturing and posting life, or writing down my thoughts in words, I wanted to just be.
As a family we were also busy. Our spring flew by, while I worked at my gardening gig and as I finished up the school year working as a lunch time student supervisor. Our twin daughters, Kathryn and Victoria, turned eight in May. Our youngest son William turned the grand ole age of ten at the end of June.
Blue skies and warm days met us all through our summer. Thankfully we didn’t experience the choking smoke from forest fires, since rain scattered through our warm months like a welcome blessing. Our garden flourished; our cherries were luscious, and as summer came to an end, Italian prune plums abundantly filled buckets.
We accomplished many projects as well. David built a rail styled fence along our garden and then created a lattice privacy wall at the end of our swimming hole. He painted the pool house and the play house and then built a set of steps up the middle of our rock wall.
While he was building, I painted. Steps, fences, and benches. When I wasn’t covered in paint, I was deep in the garden harvesting and canning or freezing food.
William went to camp, the little girls had a mid summer’s eve party, Grace worked at the water slides and our oldest son came home from University and worked as a landscaper once again.
Mid summer, we had a lovely respite when we took the family to Vancouver Island for a weeks get away. We picked up our oldest daughter in Victoria and headed up Island where we set up a base camp at Rathtrevor Beach in Parksville. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and perfect for a camping holiday. The days were warm enough to swim in the ocean and during the evenings we happily gorged on s’mores around the camp fire.
We were able to visit all of our favourite haunts too; Qualicum Beach, Coombs, (Goats on the Roof Country Market) Englishman Falls, Cathedral Grove Forest and we had an amazing, warm sunny day at Long Beach and Tofino, on the west side of the island.
All spring and early summer I’d been feeling off balanced. As if I was walking on a long, narrow board and at any time I would fall and crash. I pushed myself along but the fear of falling stayed with me all through spring and summer. That trip to the island helped to restore my soul but I still felt off centre and sad. I couldn’t explain why because I was so grateful for so much in my life…but a dark feeling persisted.
Then the kids went back to school and our fall routine slipped into place. Feelings of melancholy weighed me down. Then I started to hear about the climate action marches around the world, inspired by Greta Thunberg, a sixteen year old Swedish teenager.
With every march, and every speech I heard her give I realized that a heavy stone, holding down the hope I had for our children’s future and the health of our earth was being lifted. (I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was feeling unbalanced from all the negative voices in the world, fighting “against” climate action) Also, I felt like we, as a family were not moving fast enough to help the earth. Yes earlier in the year we had cancelled our garbage pick up but we were stalled on our path towards a zero waste lifestyle. We weren’t where I wanted to be.
But as my heart opened and balance returned, I realized that I was being too hard on myself and I wouldn’t be able to take any action if I didn’t have hope. This blog is all about hope. This blog is about inspiring others to live a more sustainable life, connecting with others while helping our planet. If I didn’t have hope, I had nothing to write about. Greta gave me back hope.
And here I am today, drinking tea and writing, while my youngest make gingerbread cookies.
And while I’m still not where I want to be in all areas, when I look back at where we used to be ten years ago, I know that progress is more important than perfection.
Fall has nourished me with the reminder that each season has it’s own gifts. As the days grow shorter, my energy is restored. My heart is open. I’m excited again about the ways we can make a difference in our own home. And I see I’m not alone. At our children’s school there is now a compost bin in each classroom. There are fewer buses and more children riding their bikes to school. There is less paper coming home in backpacks. Our community is coming together. Greta has us talking about ways we can make progress towards helping our environment and that’s inspiring.
Well, my tea cup is almost empty, so our visit is coming to a close but I know I will visit with you again soon…..if this is a place that you find nourishing too, please come back for a visit. I wanted to share with you a few things that we are doing again this year to have a less consumer driven holiday. I love Christmas and the joy the season brings but I want to teach my children that it’s not about what’s wrapped in a present. It’s not about decorating our house to the nines. It’s not about looking perfect or attending every party and event. It’s about the gift of love we give each other. Also, Christmas is about finding hope again.
With hope we find a place of balance.
I hope this blog can be a place of balance to nourish your soul too.
Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope
P.S. Sending a birthday wish off to a dear one in my life. Happy Birthday Danielle. May you know how much you are loved! May a balanced life always be yours! (I wrote this blog post on Nov 23….but it’s shown as being posted on Nov 24th…the joy of blogging)
