Orienting

I wanted to share a little bit of background on the hows and whys of this blog before actually getting started; a road map, if you will, for finding the way through a tangle of hopes, dreams, ideas and ideals... Our lives are a process of evolution, one thing leading to another, and - if we're lucky - we continually learn and grow from our experiences. It's interesting to sit down from time to time and look back over our lives, seeing if we can trace the tap root of how we came to be where we are today. For me, to start with, I've never been exactly what you would call mainstream. I've been accused of a lot of things, but being "ordinary" has never been one of them. I've always been a bit off-center, in my own head and doing my own thing. People have referred to me variously as a free spirit, a weirdo, a freak, a geek, artsy fartsy, a hippie and a throwback (although with that last, I'm not sure if they mean that something about me recalls an earlier time or whether they mean I'm the kind of creepy three-eyed fish that if they caught, they would hastily throw back into the pond). A lot of my life, I think, has been a search for the best (for me) way to express this desire I have to live meaningfully, apart from the herd. I'm not saying that I have finally found the ultimate answer, but for the last couple of years there's been a sort of convergence, a coalescing going on. The strands come from a long-standing interest in ecology, over a decade as a vegetarian, several years now of having a meditation practice, and - most recently and perhaps most importantly - the fact that I am about to become a mother. Where I've landed is a strong desire for and readiness to commit to a life where simplicity, sustainability and self-sufficiency are the guiding principles. I've gotten really into urban homesteading, making more of our own things, in leading a deliberate, meaningful, and purposeful life. My husband and I have already been taking some steps in this direction - "greening" our lives, gardening, cooking most of our own food, scaling back and paring down, but we're still relative newbies with a lot to learn and a lot of ground to cover. What I hope to chronicle here is that journey, with all its challenges and rewards, as my new family and I set about to stake our claim.

Oh - and when I said that I am about to become a mother, I mean imminently. I am due any day, so that's sure to make blogging interesting, at least for a while.