The Ordinary Life
Good morning world, from Wildwood Acres homestead!
The excitement of the holidays have finally settled around here, our only reminders left behind, some straggling glittery remnants of tinsel from my Christmas décor & of course, precious memories made with family & friends through out the season. A calm January continues to mosey in, drifting along at a much slower pace compared to the months leading up to the New Year, which seemed to jet on by in an indecipherable blur.
The kids are finally back to their daily routines & school schedules. We’ve all struggled a bit to reset our body’s internal clocks over the past couple of weeks. It doesn’t take long for those late night hangout sessions & movie marathons we enjoyed during winter break to throw off our sleep schedules & impact our energy levels during the week.
We’ve been making an effort to get back on track with our eating habits as well. Free flowing sugar & deliciously heavy comfort foods tend to fill our kitchens & bellies during the holidays. Being mindful of incorporating those cleansing greens & putting those powerful, nutrient packed, basic ingredient meals back on the dinner table always feels right about this time of year. Fortunately I find myself completely comfortable these days with the ebb & flow of my seasonal weight gain & subsequent weight loss, which tends to occur from about October through May annually. After only about 20 years of the same, repetitive life experience (& of course, an infinite number of reassuring reminders from my ever-so-logical & loving spouse) I have finally embraced the fact that my body & my mind have a system, a process, an annual evolution of being that is (simply put) just me. A little less than one year from my 40th birthday & I can finally say, this is my normalcy & all is RIGHT & WELL with me. Who knew aging could bring about such liberation & understanding acceptance of self? I’ll try to remember to share this secret with my children as they grow, but they too, will have to figure these things out for themselves.
So, I’ve been working on my writing a lot lately. Not as much the creative act of writing itself, but the process by which I tailor my lifestyle in a way that fosters the opportunity to write. After all, I have 3 kids, a household to manage, lots of creative interests & basic life responsibilities that demand significant amounts of my attention on a daily basis. Finding windows of time to put words to the page isn’t as simple as one would think. I’ve been making a real effort to honor my desire (& really, my need) to write by identifying ways to allocate time to just that specific process. I’ve definitely gotten creative, finding opportunities to steal 5 or 10 minutes here & there. The good news is that I’ve recently discovered the mundane, everyday life experiences tend to generate the most inspiration within me. This realization has offered up some solace for me as I’m recognizing the perpetual search for writing material isn’t particularly necessary as it’s within reach all day long, every day. I simply need to live my life, do what I do best & then allow those seemingly tedious daily experiences to marinate in my noggin, all the while trusting that they will eventually serve as my muse, bubble up to the surface & pour onto the page. Living in the present moment on a day-to-day basis, I am capable of tapping into that free flowing creative energy that I mistakenly assumed I needed to seek out in our world. I’ve taken to (sometimes) carrying a small scratch pad & pencil around with me during the day. I suppose they serve as my “tools of the trade” much in the same way a photographer’s daily life might require the toting of a camera. So when I find myself experiencing an instance of clarity or engaging in an activity that stirs some sort of divine sense of connect or purpose, I can jot down that feeling quickly while it’s still fresh & alive within me. Oddly, these occurrences tend to take place while I’m doing something so uninteresting, like sewing a button back on my 3-year-old’s favorite shirt. Anyway, I observe the moment & then scratch out a few words to potentially share with all of you at another time. I guess what all of this amounts to is that I have a passion for writing & no matter how ordinary it might be, I have a passion for the life I’m currently leading. The way I live, the things I love are not for everyone, but for some reason I feel driven to share a select few of my experiences with others. So, that’s what I’ll keep doing for now & assume this desire to share is in me for a reason & hopefully serves a purpose.
I cracked open a jar of applesauce & pickled okra last night & ate them simultaneously as bedtime snack. It was a weird combination of flavors, but it was like a little shot of euphoric, medicinal goodness for the soul. I munched on those treats with such pride. I thought of how I made that applesauce with my friend when the wind’s of seasonal change had only just begun, an early autumn sunlight peering through my (albeit filthy) kitchen window & the two of us slaving, peeling, cranking & stirring over a bubbly, hot, humid stovetop for hours upon hours. I reflected on the summer months, watching my pathetically small section of okra grow at the end of my garden row, wondering if I’d ever get enough for even a simple side dish at dinner, let alone for canning. The summer months began to wane & sure enough, my okra grew into a successful, mini harvest. Fortunately the farmers down the road actually know how to grow this delicacy with ease & in abundance. So I visited their farm stand & ultimately combined my teeny haul with several baskets of their successful harvest. I love the freedom to pickle the day away! It feeds my spirit & last night it fed my tumtum. I will always cherish these delicious memories of our first year here at Wildwood Acres.
On that note, I’m off to browse the seed catalogues for the hundredth time & continue to dream up new, spring gardening endeavors.
In peace, love & light always,
Kristin
Light reading (& daydreaming) for breakfast.
