Live Slow

There are big changes coming up for me and my family next month. We have decided to drastically simplify our lives and downsize our home and eliminate our financial debts. We are selling our house and moving from Bowen Island, where we have lived for the past 16 years, to a small home in Alberta. That small home is 88 years old and used to be my mother's house. Our plan is to restore it and live the simple life there, marinating in the experience of living slow, living debt-free, and living with less things. This is a big endevour, and it has taken much time to unload our current home here. There is much to release, and I am looking seriously at my attachments to 'things'.

Needless to say, I have certainly developed an attachment to all our dear friends and Soul Tribe here on Bowen over the years! I plan to stay in touch and I'm grateful that there are many ways to do so! ♥ ♥ ♥ I have learned so much from you all... I'll carry that learning forward, with honour and grace. Thank-you, for all you have shared with me - with our family. It is bittersweet to move on, and change is a part of life... we must shift willingly into the new phases as they present themselves.

To me, the idea of living slow is quite enticing. We have been moving along in the fast lane for many years, struggling to make ends meet and never quite making it on this high-cost-of-living coast. There is a heavy feeling, carrying the weight of debt, that isn't easily shaken off. I am even having a hard time imagining what it will actually feel like to not have to carry that load! And moving out of the fast lane to me means moving through my days at a pace that feels gentle. Doing the work that makes me feel inspired. I will be teaching yoga, I know that for certain!! Creating another garden, painting, working on the house slowly, spending quality time with relatives and getting close with them again, raising our teenager, riding bicycles on the flat roads, taking pictures of nature, singing Kirtan. :-) Experiencing the full spectrum of the seasons is another aspect I have missed about the prairies (I grew up on the prairies... 28 years of my life spent there). The smells, the dry air, the deep cold, the frost, the big, sunny skies.

My family and I are making a conscious choice to opt out of the busy-ness, the trappings of working society. 'Live to work and work to live' does not resonate with us anymore. Living in the slow lane holds no shame for us. Nurturing the voice of our Soul, our Essence, is a priority. (And dying old makes me feel wistful. Having a body that serves me well as I die old... a dream of mine. It takes self-discipline, and living and sharing the path of yoga). ♥

Wishing you all love, peace, and a slower pace...

xox Leah