What lights me up?

In my “past life” I was an enthusiastic activist and keyboard warrior campaigning to Politicians at every opportunity. From time to time I still am.

But these days I am much more intentional in how I dedicate my time from the space of “inspiration”, rather than reaction and opposition, which often merely tends to create resistance training for that which one opposes! It’s basic inflammation.

I love that the word is transformed to “creation” from reaction. You can’t have both. You must choose the order. I feel that to be so. 

What triggered the inspiration for me to write this? Both my love of writing and my love of home education / unschooling. 

See… I’m a lover of freedom and autonomy. Many people who have had some kind of physical or psychological abuse, I find, are advocates for autonomy and respectful parenting/ relationships. Count me as one of them. 

I’m passionate about this and it’s also where my activist, justice seeker spirit possibly came from when it comes to Human Rights. These days though, my energy is drawn to slow, conscious living in and from love. Not the fight. Opposition makes something stronger… It always has. It’s a basic principle for resistance training. 

So I have dropped fighting energy and gone deep into the creative space of focusing on this special, fleeting time of childhood for my children. Probably because I did not have much of one (as a state ward by age 3)… again, resistance training… This made me stronger in this realm. 

And so, back to the important question of what lights me up? Well, a message from Anthony Golle recently inspired me to write this… Here it is:

“I don’t know … Can life be any harder than doing that which truly lights you up? What if you just dedicated 100% of your energy, time, focus and money on what you DO want to create … rather than fighting problems.

The sheer act of fighting that which you don’t want continues to create its existence.

Everything you have in your life today is a present. That’s why it is called the present. It was pre-sent (by you).

So the question is … what are you sending yourself NOW to create the future you desire. Or are you so absorbed by your apparent problems or the problems of the world and the dopamine hit of certainty it gives you to feel worried, frustrated, sad or angry.

How about becoming addicted to the feelings of joy, gratitude, love and being totally in the moment.

So if you had all the time and money you required … what would you create ?

What truly lights you up … your whole body “goose bump” moments where you are in spirit – inspired, you breath fully, your heart is wide open and maybe even a tear of gratitude comes to your eye.

This is your super power – your zone of genius – your physiology guiding you towards your purpose.

What if you traded the time you already spent each day catching up with what is wrong with the world (and thereby perpetuating it with the masses collective unconscious) … for time siting in the space to allow your vision of what you do want to create ?

Our social system is not geared that way, nor does it teach our children to honour it, but rather be distracted and busy, but empty.

So the pursuit of stuff, things and external validation permeates our being … only to be left still wanting more to fill the deep void left from not living in accordance with our highest values.

Everything you are looking for on the outside … your answers already exist on the inside.”

So… what lights ME up? 

Home educating / unschooling. I LOVE learning! 

Writing and Simple living… which also ties in with my passion for Feng Shui. 

So, here I am spurred on to “write”… which is something I also really LOVE!

But… looking at my bookshelf just now… I felt so inspired to share. What ABOUT home education do I love? 

It’s the ability to CHOOSE meaningful things to study and seed / strew for my children. 

The checkout lady asked my daughter yesterday (who knows we homeschool)… “So what are you learning today?” 

What did my daughter say?… Nothing. She just held up her own beautiful handwritten shopping list with only a few little spelling mistakes. It got me thinking…

What ARE we learning at the moment? Well… It’s been a while since I blogged on this… so I wanted to pop in and jot down a memoir of where we ARE at right now. 

We are lovers of all things “olden days” or “old world” if you will. This is at the moment taking the shape of biography studies of significant historical figures. We are learning about periods of time hundreds of years ago, and what it was like out of sheer curiosity and joy.

This is purely incidental… not deliberately “learning focused”. Through a cookbook from the 1700’s last night, we learned the origin of the word “pastry”, again, purely incidentally. By reading about how to make a typical “desert” of the time, Apple Dumplings. Maybe it’s something you already kew, but we certainly didn’t. Butter “paste”. It was fun to learn it too! 

Paste! Butter “paste” makes pastry! These are the little things WE learn along our journey that you WON’T find on any meaningless arbitrary test. But we learn! Together ALL of the time! And it’s together! Which means so much as it’s a bonding time we share together… not laborious. Today in the local second hand bookshop, it was a book “Gorillas in the Mist” my daughter picked up ecstatically showing me!

She learned about it in a Jane Goodall Biography recently and it “stuck”! Because she owned that learning… and it was joyous!

We read A LOT. We read to each other. Just because my daughter “can” read… It doesn’t mean I don’t read to her anymore. The children learn so much through my expression and in the way of vocabulary… but much of it is in beautiful old literature that you won’t find on any modern day school tests or literature anymore either. 

The vocabulary and emotional content of my children is one of the great many reasons I love Unschooling / Home education. Emotional intelligence and mental health are among other reasons, but physical health as well. It’s about learning the art of living (naturally) and basic self care that so many lack who have “successfully been through the whole education system” and earned themselves Degrees even. 

That’s the attraction for me. I have no doubt my children will be capable of earning Degrees should they choose that, or become Entrepreneurs who hire people with Degrees even. 

But it’s not my responsibility to educate well meaning others on the success that homeschoolers have entering Universities… that’s not a concern. Statistically homeschoolers do considerably better in higher education because of their experience in leading their own learning. 

There are so many reasons I love home / unschooling! It simply lights me up! 

I will return to elaborate on what lights me up with more “passion talk” later. But for now. I thought this would be a good start. What lights YOU up? I love a good “passion talk”!