At Home

This child is spending his earliest days surrounded by forest. His feet in a fresh water lake, on Carolina clay or shuffling across the forest floor. His eyes on the sky spotting hawks, bats, butterflies and his beloved moon. His ears are tuned to the sounds of woodpeckers pounding and wild feet crunching. One of the very first animal sounds he could mimic was the howl of a coyote.

He is my nature boy. He grounds me and lifts my spirits. He reminds me what is most important to me.

Smart Car

We are a little obsessed with transportation in all it's forms these days. Max got a smart car this week.

It's convertible to foot power so we are totally independent of fossil fuels!! 

The Dude is pretty stoked.

Little Did I Know...

The last time I posted here... I was pregnant and didn't know it yet. Then when I did know it I was so superstitious and fearful after so many failures that I refused to post. Then when he got here safe and sound I was so tired I couldn't find the time and energy to post again!!! 

That was about... 28 months ago. Time FLIES!

So here I am, wanting to blog about our adventures living and exploring our wildness. Let's see if Max and I can resurrect this blog!

On Anarchy and Emma Goldman

"Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals…"
— Emma Goldman (Anarchism and Other Essays)

Wow. Liberation from religion, property, and government.

When I was a young college aged anarchist with ideals that seemed totally unattainable inside the "restraint" of modern society I used to wish for an apocalyptic change. That changed when I saw Night of the Living Dead. I wouldn't live a day in a post apocalypse because I couldn't load a gun. I knew where the guns were, I knew enough to figure out how to take off the safety and shoot... but in the time it took me to figure how to load I would be eaten by zombies. Either that or the looters would steal my water and food.

I decided at that point to start watching what I wished for. So here I am 20+ years later and I recently stopped to take a look around at myself and my life.

And last night it hit me.

Freedom from religion? Check.

Freedom from property? Check.

And 2 out of 3 ain't bad my friends.

Emma also said: "I would rather have roses on my table than diamonds around my neck", and that I do. Not too bad for a Anarchist Recessionista.

Complicated

In which... I get a shout out for my comment about grave dancing...
Girl's Gone Child: Complicated: In Your Words

You Couldn't Pay Me Enough

I experienced enough anxiety and stress when I was a teenager, reliving it through my stepdaughters is killing me.

There is no way to prepare them for what they are facing. No way to tell them that no matter how sure they think they are; they do not know better. In fact what they know is much much worse.

My parents for sure didn't get in the middle of my life. Unless it affected my well being.
I am struggling to find the bright side again.  Just when I look up, the sky falls again.

Not Exactly Leprechauns...

This is my St. Patrick's Day present! A lovely gnome couple tea light holder from Yankee Candle.

I have loved gnomes since I was a kid. The Gnomes book was my bible. Forest beings living lives that I could not see was fascinating to me. I had gnome books, gnome statues, and gnome cross stitched wall hangings.

When I saw the gnome themed display in the Yankee Candle shop at the mall I gasped... and my husband groaned. He HATES the candle store. You are never going to believe why.

My husband can pinpoint the exact moment that his hatred of smelly candles began. He was five. His class was given the opportunity to color with scented crayons. It was the 1970's! We had smelly everything from stickers, to markers, to dolls. Apparently these scented crayons were wonderful smelling. So wonderful in fact that my husband was compelled to eat them.

He ate almost an entire box of scented crayons. By the time anyone noticed it was too late and they were already making him sick. You can imagine what scented wax would taste, feel and smell like in your stomach.

The sense memory of scented wax is enough to put him off the candle store forever.

But they were gnomes!!!!

So I struck a brilliant bargain. The large Yankee Candle with the gnome on the label is $24.99. A very expensive candle I admit; even if it does last for 5 years or however long the say. But the lovely tea light holder was less than half that amount!! So I was able to convince him that the candle holder was a better buy (and it really was). The most remarkable part of the deal was that he admitted that he liked the smell of the Honeysuckle tea lights...

Done.  Happy St. Patrick's Day.