Community

I can not do it all.

Yep. Its a fact about me - I can not accomplish everything. I can not build my own car from metal, I can not craft all my kitchen utensils, and I can not currently slaughter my own cow. I am OK with this! But there is plenty of things I CAN do!

I can knit, crochet and cook. I can garden and lend a hand to those in need. I can share my resources. I begin to realize all the things I can do and its liberating!

On this journey to become less dependent on nationally mass produced items, international 'things' and on our quest to more self reliance.. I realized something. Today an epiphany hit me like a ton of bricks, in the form of reading exactly what I needed to read in this book at the end:

"Radical Homemaking is about building self-reliance, but it is nor about becoming totally self sufficient and living apart from society. 'there really is no such thing as self sufficiency' argues Sylvia. She makes the point that Radical Homemaking is not about independence; it is about interdependence or, perhaps, 'inter-reliance'.
'You'd just about go crazy trying to do everything yourself and I dont know that its healthy or really possible... I think... being able to share things with your neighbors and share your jobs, chores, skills, tools and other types of things is really where its at"

It all begins with laying the groundwork. I'm talking about a networked community of people who share together their resources with a common goal in mind. I need to reclaim my domestic skills, along side my husband.

In this liberation of inter-dependence I've realized that I need a great community. I've always believed in growing community ties, family, friends, etc. But what I have lacked is the 'how do I get to know people!"

This past 6 months I've made amazing strides in getting to know members of my fellowship more, other homeschooling mothers, other cloth diapering and holistic living parents, and in general have created a feeling of contentment with my community.

I Love Boise!