Week 25: The next phase

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We are entering the next phase of our Nothing New project. Over the next week we are packing up our home and putting a small amount of special things in storage and everything else will be put back into our community. Furniture, baby things, house hold bits and pieces and tonnes of clothing are either being donated to our local Women’s Shelter or sold at very cheap prices so that they are affordable and accessible to those who need them. I’ve been thinking a lot about our future and wondering where we are supposed to be, this is a bit of a habit of mine, the curse of the constant itchy feet… the wanderer spirit in me creeps in often, whispering fantasies in my ears and making me long for lands far, far away.

Instead of gallivanting off around the globe, we are staying local, but instead of moving into a new rental I’m going to see if it is possible to live a more transient life as a family of two. To see if it’s possible to divorce ourselves from the assumed necessities of life, and try out some different lifestyles to see what sits best with us. At the end of next week we will be handing back the keys to our little shack and moving a bit further inland to a little room on the back of a trailer in the orchards of a local organic farm. For three weeks we will live out there, with nothing but what fits in the boot of our car (it’s pretty cold out there, so realistically it will be mostly blankets). Working the land with the growers and exchanging a room for a bit of good natured labour. I put a call out into my community a few months ago, to see if there would be anyone who would be happy to have us for a while, so that I could learn the skills of organic farming and so Bo could live a life with a different rhythm. With no television and nothing but orchards and vegetable gardens to have great winter adventures in, our daily rhythm is sure to change… a welcomed change of early nights and days outside. A change that I welcome with open arms as we shift from the monotonous stress that has existed for the past six months as I completed my masters, a shift into a life with a simpler, clearer purpose.

Sometimes a change in rhythm is all one needs to reassess and find joy once more in the little things that make life so beautiful. Good company, dirt under our fingernails and long days in the winter sun exploring the wild world of our own backyard.

After that we will be house sitting for a while… taking care of other peoples homes and opening our hearts to the rhythm of other lives…  After that? I don’t know yet. We are booked up until September and after that we will go wherever the wind takes us. Without being tied to a house, we will have the freedom to move and the financial freedom of not having to pay rent every week. A transient life will not be without it’s challenges I’m sure. I’m not making any commitment as to how long this phase of the project will go for, we are very lucky that we have the privilege of the option of signing a new lease and going into a new place if we decide that is what is best for us… All we can do is try.

All this has got me thinking about the idea of home, and what it really means to me.

Can we make a home that isn’t defined by walls or suburbs, that isn’t defined by any of the things that are contained within them, a home that isn’t concerned with being comfortable, or fashionable or big enough or… Can we make a home that isn’t about anything that you can touch at all. Can we make a home that is more transient, a home that lives in the spirit of our relationship as a family of two… is that enough for a stable, happy life? Is it even possible with a toddler in tow?

I don’t know. I really, really don’t know.

I guess we are about to find out!

What does “home” mean to you?

Similar Posts:

• Week 40: Back to Reality
• Week 29: The spaces between.
• Nothing New: The halfway point.
• Week 24: Why are we doing this again?
• Nothing New – The Rules.