Hopes

Our family - Kirk, hubby, partner-in-life & all-around good egg; Jayne, 16 year old daughter, partner in discovering the world through unschooling & fascinating young woman; Kico, large old dog who loves & is loved passionately; Hobbes, Budgie, small bird with huge personality; Mojo, Senegal Parrot, gorgeous cheeky intriguing companion, and me - took a huge leap of faith on August 6 moving from Michigan to rural Maine in the hopes of starting a new life focused on simple, sustainable living, grounded in spirituality as opposed to religion, and all about living life joyfully and fully. We seek to collaborate with like-minded others and have spent several years searching. The search has not ended but we've sharpened its focus.

I always suspected that we wouldn’t find that “right” situation all nicely tied up with a ribbon, but rather would have to take a leap of faith and venture forth to somewhere on nothing more than a hunch. So, many months back I told Kirk that I was driving a stake in the ground, “We’re moving in June, I don’t know where, but we are moving!” We both turned 50 in the spring and I decided that was auspicious. Kirk was none too happy with my notion and we had a few interesting conversations in the last months. It was the hardest thing he’s ever done, but he did it, and we came out here with no clarity of the right people & place, no job, and not even a clear place to live. Our first days here we ended up homeless driving around in two old cars (which both broke down simultaneously) with our dog & parrot aboard – it’s quite a tale!

Since then we have found a safe temporary place to live at Carousel Horse Farm, Kirk has secured part-time project work with a small Maine firm in his field – electrical engineering, to tide us over until we can really create the new life we’re dreaming of, and we have already come to love Maine, her wonderful welcoming, friendly people, her beauty, her quirkiness, & her promise of possibilities.

I'm looking for a way to help bring in a bit of income -- not an easy thing for an unjobber. I have hopes of creating some off-beat very part-time way of making money -- I did it in Michigan and I know it will come to pass here as well, all in good time.

As we prepared to make our move to Maine I decided it was time for me to set a declared intention concerning doing more writing, which is one of my callings. So I spoke aloud the intention, with witnesses, to begin writing an ongoing chronicle of my life’s journey to share with others, hopefully eventually generating some income, and I chose a name for my chronicles: Freedom’s Edge. I hope soon to expand on this blog and create the unmagazine, Freedom's Edge, that will chronicle my journey & thoughts, making this available to readers by subscription.

Other late-breaking hopes include one that Kirk & I share: that Jayne, who is as I write at Not Back To School Camp (a unique camp for unschooling teens) will have had the life-changing, authentically opening experience we've imagined from attending this unusual gathering of out-of-the-box teens. We hope too she will come home having begun the finding of the deep-connection friendships she yearned for and didn't find in the midwest.

We are currently pursuing our "this is it" connection with people & place here in Maine. We are in conversation with 5 situations. Each is unique and all are intriguing. As I ponder them I find myself thinking of them as ripening pieces of fruit still on the tree, I can't wait to taste each one and of course I have hopes...