I recently did a visioning exercise as part of monthly zoom with an unschooling group that I’m in. Afterwards I wrote down a few things that I got from the exercise, and one thing that I jotted was, we can create this beautiful life right where we are.
I’ve been writing this newsletter for a few months and probably most weeks I focus on how life is hard but we are all doing the best we can; there is beauty alongside all the challenges. I keep repeating myself because I believe it is true for each of us in our own ways. There are times when the hard parts can cast a long shadow and we may forget everything else around us. As I continually try to support my kids through their struggles, which sometimes take up most of the energy and space in our family, it easy for me to focus on the things seem wrong and that I want to change.
When you keep hoping for something better, even just little glimmers, there might be a time when your hope falters because it doesn’t feel like you’re getting any closer to the things that are hoped for. Then your mind returns to the well worn pathways of worry and all the things that could turn out even worse. Every day I imagine a thousand disasters when we are actually all here doing okay.
Knowing everything that could go wrong, it’s worth wondering, what if everything works out? What if I can trust myself and my children? What if we really can create this beautiful life right where we are?
I have no answers to these questions except to move forward carrying them along and perhaps leaving the less helpful what ifs behind. It is in no way easy to move toward trust and away from fear, but I want to spend more time to considering that there are millions of other possibilities besides failure and disaster.
As I was visioning I started to see warm summer afternoons, sitting under a shade on our patio, next to flowering zinnias and blossoming milkweed. I remember that summer will be back with warmth, a weedy garden, pizza nights in our back yard. And reconnecting with this brightness reminds me of the strengths in my family, the things that bring us together, the activities and ideas we get excited about and want to share with each other. There will be more of a lot of things but what if there is more of this?
Warmly,
Anna