Spring Anticipation

My Non-Gmo, non-hybrid seeds came today!! Complete with, planting tips and seed saving instructions!! Perfect as we near the time of Imbolc, or the First Spring! (more to come on this subject.)

This, accompanied by tips gathered from RootSimple, VeganSeeds, Sprout Robot, and various books from the library yet to be read, I am going to design my garden plots!

Watch out Equinox, this family is going to be armed with seedlings to plant under your moon!! Hope you're as excited as we are!!

How do you DO life?

Recently my kid sister Christmased in Africa. She returned with, among other things, a handmade dress for my daughter and an observation: we're all different, yet the same. Some things (specifically, breasts and breastfeeding) aren't as big of a deal there as here.

This kind of realization is one of the main reasons I love to travel.

What do the locals do? While the tourist stops are interesting, what's the everyday like for the majority of the people? How do they DO life? Where is it the same? Where is it different? We all have to eat, sleep, survive the barren season, we all have a family, etc. How does this place do that environmentally, physically, spiritually? How does that shape the worldview of the people who live this daily? What can I learn from them? Should some part of my life change or grow based on this new knowledge? Are my ways 'better' ? Should I share them and risk changing the balance of this place?

In most cases, my travels have changed me for the better and I haven't found anything about how I do life that they NEED to know, other than cholera prevention. There is nothing more profound about the way I show love than how other cultures I've been blessed to immerse myself in show love.

Typically these other cultures seem less wasteful, more resourceful, more family focused, more welcoming and therefore less 'needy' for stuff.

Perhaps this is why I'm not very fond of the culture I currently find myself immersed in.

Between the Lives

Sometimes I feel torn between two worlds. I wish it was this one and the fairies, but really it's the one I think I'm living and the one everyone else seems to be living.

I dream of 'our dream house' with gardens and chickens and awesome family bonds, art/craft night, music and piles of books. I start to think 'we're headed there soon. We have the bonds and crafts and books'.

But then, for some unknown reason, I think the rest of my life isn't real. My closest friends are 'my friends in the computer'. The real people i know, well, sometimes I feel they just use my need for face to face conversation time as a chance to make money. I don't really want people to tell me how to live more in my power when they don't take the time to share in my being outside of workshops.

Then I get homesick for Old Friends who have had time to get past this hurdle, but sadly live 1000s of miles away or on a different continent.

Skype only helps so much.

Then i sit on the kitchen floor, eating hummus and reading Eric Carle with my favorite almost 2-year-old, and things in my head click back into place. I remember I do know people who love me, share with me, are willing to listen and advise without a love offering. while they don't live in my house, they DO live this town (although I wouldn't mind cohabitating with some of them.)

I remember I am blessed. And that I bless. And these things should not be taken for granted.

I may not live the 'dream' but I do live the Dream v 1.0 which will soon become v 1.5. So I breathe in peace and breathe out disappointment, because there is no room that here.

My recycle pile. The #5 go with us to Whole Foods and the plastic bags to Reasors. All kitchen scraps and lawn debris are composted, thus cutting my landfill donation in half.

Working It

Since moving halfway across the country, money has been tight. Income wages are about half of those where we came from and Sallie Mae doesn't factor that into her monthly demands.

Than we had a kid, I was forcibly cut back at work, and our income dropped again.

Fortunately, we qualified for state insurance or we would have had to learn how to have an unassisted birth. (totally doable and I am in awe of women who have done this!) we probably could have qualified for WIC but they never returned my calls. And based on what I've heard since then, I wouldn't have been happy with it anyway.

While they are an awesome service for those who need assistance, they provide mostly cereal, dairy and dried rice and beans. We like to buy fresh produce first and get those other things with the money left over.

We've joined a co-op and grow some of our own food. We've learned how to be creative with our money (since we stink at 'budgeting' - but isn't that just creative money on paper?) We don't do drive thrus, are really limited on the processed snacks and freezer fillers, so we can get by without the federal aid.

Maybe the service is out there and I'm uneducated about it, but wouldn't it be great it you could use your WIC voucher at the farmers market? Or have a larger produce allotment (i hear its something like $6)? Maybe an honest food awareness class, not funded by Big Ag, encouraging the population to really eat our broccoli?

Living in Tulsa

For those who may not know, I current reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Not my first choice of cities/big towns, but it is getting better everyday. We moved here 3+ years ago there was absolutely nothing downtown except Scary. Now there is plenty to do! Baseball stadium, arena, 3 districts full of locally owned shops and nightclubs, restaurants, you get the picture. Dead, scary, boring downtown has come back to life. The rest of the city... That's a different story.

Coming from PDX it couldn't be more opposite. Trash is picked up twice a week and we have to pay extra if we want some recycling picked up every other week. Our garbage bill is based off our water usage, never mind if you have a vegetable garden, or a toddler wadding pool, or are washing your cloth diapers every other day and only put the trash out every 10-14 days. Oh, and compost all your yard debris. Nope. They don't care. We have to pay the same as the lady across the street who puts out a 20 gallon bin lined with cardboard and the limit of 6 bags of yard trimmings almost every pick up day.

But hey, at least we can dance our worries away after a day of local retail therapy and hit up a farmers market for breakfast.

Magic

I grew up in household that believed anything 'magical' was bad. No fairies except Timkerbell, no gnomes, no tree nymphs, no Carebears (although i have one). Witches were feared or not real, so Harry Potter had the potential to dement the mind...

.None of that stuck with me.

I totally believe that all the myths are true. All gods/goddesses are valid. Fairies inhabit my backyard, nymphs protect my trees. There is power in the moonlight. And I completely believe in magick. Not Harry Potter magic, but magick. The ability to make things happen out of pure will. This can be focused in a pagan ritual or encouraged with prayer, or through meditation. However you define it, whatever you call the power behind it, magick is real.

I don't want to get into doctrine or specific practices. I just want to say, I agree with Ronald McDonald and the Fraggles: I believe in magick and that the magick is in and around all of us.

This is something I want to instill in my daughter because with this belief comes the basis for respect of all living things. We are all connected, made of the some light and matter as the stars, and should be treated with equal respect.

In most family traditions these kinds of beliefs are passed on thru stories. I'm looking for the right one(s) to convey the magic. She currently believes monsters are good babysitters (thanks, monsters inc) and that fairies ride on bees (thumbalina). I'm looking for more ideas. Like I said, I didn't grow up hearing stories full of magical happenings.

What kind of stories do you tell your children? What beliefs are they gleaning from them?