The water is a cloud of swifts detonating against body. Feet grip the stone fortress as an army of bubbles shatters time into skin. I am at peace here, immersed in the white noise. Every day the world is reborn so that we might start over. You cannot step into the same day twice. The water swallows me whole. I emerge moments, or lifetimes later, older, stronger, wiser: letting go of the woman I was, the water pushes me towards…
Radical self-love is something I’ve been working on for a while. It sounds so easy but is one of the most difficult things. Mainly because it is in complete opposition to our narrow, proscriptive, didactic culture where we live according to the rules & expectations of others. Radical self-love is the opposite of ‘doing as you’re told’ or creating legislation for others to adhere to; radical self-love is pure anarchy, and the only way, I believe, to map a way…
How often do you check in with your mental landscape? When was the last time you sat quietly with yourself, turning the gaze inward to spend time getting to know your inner lakes & rivers, the vertiginous contours or endless desert spaces. It’s a practice I’ve developed over the years as I find it helps to better understand the direction the heart is heading in (which can be completely opposite to where the mind thinks we’re going). For a long…
Vanlife mornings are calmer now we have improved our communications. It sounds so simple but living in a tiny space has made us realise how much we didn’t always communicate our needs to each other. This morning is a bit drizzly so I needed to do yoga indoors – in the past I’ve thought this would be taking up too much space so wouldn’t bother. When I told Andy this he said how much he loves me doing yoga in…
Spending a lot of time with the women in my family on this return journey. Healing a lot of old wounds. We are a loud & lairy cohort. In the past I’ve both loved & hated this. I’ve tried to run from it; pretended to be someone else. And then there’s this point where I’ve shapeshifted through all of it; evolved away & then back towards myself, towards us. Nobody knows me like these women, nobody has stood up for…
Switching up the morning tea ritual – ditching teabags for good. Maybe it won’t change the world but it will change something. I’m starting to believe more in the power of small, positive changes cascading outwards to become a mighty river of change. A river comprised of the simple coalescing of an infinite number of tiny raindrops of intent. We do not need to plan the course of river, where or how she should appear, we just need to work…
It takes time to settle into a tiny home, to eek out the spaces for art, the corners for multi-purpose storage. Everything must add value to our lives in either a practical or aesthetic way; we have learned to otherwise be harsh in our ejecting of stuff from the van. We rarely buy gifts unless absolutely sure it will be of use or bring joy to a person and we ask for no gifts in return (unless we, or they,…
Sophie McKeand The world is a beautiful, unfathomable being; an eternally shapeshifting spirit; a guide everybody can connect with on their life journey. We do not need wise men, religions or spiritual guides, we just need to be prepared to put the work in to understand our Selves on a deep & meaningful level. This means complete honesty about our situation. This means facing our shadows. This means manifesting joy even in our darkest hours. Our creativity is a gift…
After all the wonderful advice on here recently about natural home-made cleaning products (reasons why I love Instagram #435) I started doing a bit of research and have discovered a home-made fabric/air freshener. Ah! This is a gamechanger if you have damp hounds in confined spaces. I’m still experimenting at the moment but this bottle hold 500ml water. To that I added 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda in which I’d mashed 20drops of grapefruit & 20 drops of lemon…
After two stationary weeks we leave this house later today. I feel a deep sense of gratitude that we have family who can let us stay for a fortnight so that we could empty the van and give her a deep-clean along with some essential maintenance and some aesthetic additions. For two weeks we’ve had hot water on tap, I’ve taken fresh mint from the garden for morning tea & dried bunches of garden rosemary. This sleepy village is quite…