On Turning 31

Today I turned 31.
31 on the 31st May; that feels meaningful.
Turning 31 feels different to turning 30, better; 30 hangs in the air like a partially deflated balloon from a party that you should have already left. 31 on the other hand has a sense of purpose to it.  I am now IN my 30's as opposed to clinging hopelessly to my late 20s. The party is most definitely over and it's time to clean up, it's time to get serious.  Oh, that sounds very dull, I don't mean it to.  It's not going to be dull, it's going to be awesome, but it is going to be more purposeful.
I am going to seriously start to enjoy myself, I am going to seriously start to be grateful for all the wonderful things I have, I am going to seriously be positive, I am going to seriously start making meaning in my life and I am going to seriously start crafting a joyful life.
I love that my birthday falls about halfway through the year, it gives me a chance to reflect on the first half of the year and re-focus on my goals, and create new ones. It occurred to me that 10 years ago I was celebrating my 21st birthday, a great milestone year, I had a look through my photos to see what I was up to this time 10 years ago.  I was in my second year of uni at Oxford Brookes studying Fine Art, my house mates and I had a house party with some old school friends and new uni friends. It was an awesome party involving plenty of alcohol, an epic balloon fight, birthday cake and plenty of drunken antics.  Oh now times have changed in 10 years, not just where I am in life but also who my friends are and what I feel is important.  This year all I wanted to do for my birthday was go for a walk in the woods, eat some lunch in a pub, then chill out at home for the afternoon!  No partying here!  But it was all good, it was what I wanted to do and it felt special.  I felt special.  Even hanging the washing on the washing line this morning felt special and different because it was my birthday and it made me realise how important your outlook is on the way you feel.  I have been thinking a lot recently about positivity and more specifically the power of positive thinking, how consciously thinking positively can change how you feel and maybe even what happens to you.  I fully intend on doing some positive thinking in the coming weeks (made easier by the warmer weather and lighter evenings), lets see where that leads!
When we went for a walk in the woods today and I received a message, a little piece of plastic that my husband picked up from the bushes with the words "yes you can" printed on it.  I took this as an answer to a few questions I have had recently.
I feel really good about turning 31 and I think this is going to be a really amazing year. Watch this space!

10 years ago

Now

Fun things to do with toddlers - Small World Play

 A little while ago I bought some wooden dollies from Etsy with the idea that I could set up some small worlds as invitations to play for my toddler.

I laid some sand in a large, shallow plastic storage box and added pebbles, sticks and a few herbs. 

We played together moving the dollies around and arranging them in different ways,  Boris also had a go at standing up the sticks and balancing the pebbles.

I also really enjoyed the photographic opportunities I had with this activity.  As an ex photography teacher I thought about how fun something like this would be as an exercise for students. 

I think this activity definitely has potential.  Boris was a bit young for any imaginative play but it was a good sensory experience with the textures of the sand, the smooth pebbles and the sticks and the smells of the different herds.  Have you ever done invitations to play?  What did you use?  I am thinking of setting up another small world with water, and maybe one with gravel.  I also saw a friend's set up with rice and glitter which was fun. Might have to give that one a go if I can overcome my phobia of glitter!

What I have been reading - "The Man Who Quit Money" and "Free"

I read these two really interesting books from the library recently, both with a similar ilk, and yet both so different.

Both books are about people who came to choose to live without money, but both for very different reasons.

In "The Man Who Quit Money" the author tells the story of Suelo who commits, over a period of time to live without money.  His motivation is a spiritual one, having studied many of the worlds religions and coming from a Christian background he sees the only way to truly follow the teachings of Christ is to sell everything he has and quit money.  He sees no way of living in the money system which doesn't involve harming others or himself in some way.

The book tracks his remarkable journey through life and shares how he got to be where he is today (living in a cave in the mountains in Utah) it also tells how he lives off food that others have thrown out or don't need and enables us to get to know the man as a friend; humorous, humble, brave, ernest.  The book is very poetic in the way it is written and is very spiritual, it is inspiring but as much as the author tries to show how Suelo doesn't see himself as any kind of guru, it definitely leaves you feeling like he is on a pedestal, doing something totally unachievable to the ordinary person.  However this did not diminish my enjoyment of the book. What is frustrating about borrowing books from the library is you're not supposed to write in them so I have nothing to quote having not underlines any of my favorite passages; so here are a couple of quotes I found online:

“It made Daniel think. The people who had the least were the most willing to share. He outlined a dictum that he would believe the rest of his life: the more people have, the less they give. Similarly, generous cultures produce less waste because excess is shared, whereas stingy nations fill their landfills with leftovers.” 

Chance is God. To know the mind of Chance you must break all attachments (preplanning) and move with chance. Faith = taking a chance."

"I'm realizing that anything motivated by money is tainted, containing the seeds of destruction. That's the struggle - guess that's why Van Gogh couldn't sell his paintings - they had to be pure. There is no honest profession - that's the paradox. The oldest profession [prostitution] is the most honest, for it exposes the bare bones of what civilization is all about. It's the root of all professions." 

Free is the story of one woman's decision to live for a year without money as a personal challenge and to show others that it is possible.  She survives in London by living in a variety of squats and eating food from shop bins.  I enjoyed reading Katherine Hibbert's adventure and learned a lot about squatting and raiding dustbins, it would be a useful read for anyone who is thinking of squatting for whatever reason.  It includes lots of interesting statistics and sometimes surprising and shocking facts about quantities of food discarded and the numbers of uninhabited (but perfectly habitable) properties in the UK.  The marked difference between these two books was the motivation for their situations, Suelo had a deeply spiritual reason for living for free where as Katharine chose to on an apparent whim.   What I found amusing about Katharine's books was that as soon as she was settled in a squat she began gathering possessions, perhaps partly to show the reader how much useful stuff ends up in landfill, but also partly I think because she had some kind of ingrained instinct or desire to gather things.  A strong contrast to Suelo who chose to live with as few possessions as possible. 

In spite of the frivolous nature of Katharine's journey I still enjoyed the book and felt inspired by both of them to live a life with less stuff.

I had already concluded that more stuff just makes you stressed, tired, worried and anxious, but it was good to have this view reaffirmed by two very different books.