Hello wonderful people!
I have been recalcitrant with my blogging these past few months, for that I apologise. There have been some interesting events rolling along in my life. Since departing my parents house in the countryside, I’ve been on a constant rotation of house-sitting duties for friends and associates.
I have become an expert in cat sitting, let me tell you. I have even managed to befriend a cat who hides from most people apart from his usual family and I can pick up Tequila (name of current cat I’m chilling with) and pat her for a couple of minutes, purring and all, before she wiggles to escape (that is a feat, ask Katherine)! Life Goals! Another area I’m excelling at is packing, did you know my whole life can fit into a hockey bag?! Well, that’s not specifically accurate. Makes a good story though. My life fits into a series of lululemon bags (see, I knew they would come in handy!!!!), a suitcase and a duffle bag; the overflow remains at Mum and Dad’s place.
It really is a good thing they love me a lot!
In speaking with a few different people this past week, I realised I’ll be coming up to my 12 month anniversary of being a gypsy with no permanent address (though two semi permanent cities) in April. Which is weird as I’ll be in Europe in April, kind of a pertinent reminder that the world is a place to be explored! That’s how I chose to see it. Some may look at my life and think it’s unstable; one person called me free-spirited, another said she can see that I don’t typically follow the pathways others take. Free-spirited and free reign!! I like those descriptions. At the end of each housesitting adventure I think “I’ll totally get myself a rental and get all my things and have a house”, then someone else pops up who needs some help, a cat looked after, some mail collected, etc, and I check in with myself and figure I’ll continue to embrace it… why not? It is actually a great thing to feel like you can be of assistance to someone and that they trust your with their ‘home’ life while they are off adventuring in far away places. Life is about the people and places you fill it with right?!
In other news, there has been a huge influx of new families being created all around me these past few months. Between Australia and Canada – there are so many wee people being added to my friendship circles. It’s such an exciting time! I have had the pleasure of hanging out with Eliza/Ellie on a couple of occasions, who is the most chilled out baby girl…. It’s really amazing to get a perspective shift between my work tasks – speaking to people about resilience, mental health and looking after yourself physically, and applying it to the life of a new mother.
Here is an overview:
- Resilience = sleep and good communication with your support network;
- Mental health = saying ‘yes’ to help, planning one ‘outing’ each day or having people come to you for adult conversation and a spare pair of hands (to enable laundry/dishes/napping as required);
- Self-care = being grateful for the small things each day and doing one thing for yourself (in some instances this has been reported to be ‘showering’ due to the sheer demands of being the sole provider of nutrition to small beings). Self-care falls into mental heath, really so does resilience, but they are vitally important so they get their own bullet points.
It seems that when you have to put yourself second, you really have to put yourself first. Which happens by asking for the help you really need at the time you really need it. As someone who has the capacity to help, I love it. Offering to make dinner, providing cuddles to small new friends, doing laundry, sitting and having tea and listening to the ongoings of new routines, all add layers to tapestries of friendships that are already multi-coloured and run thick in texture. Being on the other side of the world and hearing your close friends are pregnant (sitting in a hostel in Peru for instance) and having so much joy all you can do is cry. These friendships are what I am grateful for and keep my heart light and free.
The point of this blog post, which is coming to me as I write it, is that though I seem to lead an unstable existence from a traditional sense, address and country-wise (typically found flipping from Australia to Canada at any given point), I have the ability to give the gift of being there as needed. Providing support to those whom I love, even if they don’t specifically request it of me. This then flows into my work, which I still maintain is to change the world through Joy & Abundance – one day at a time.
Much love and happy wandering!!
Hx (Polo!)