Feeling connected is that sense of excitement about who you are and what you’re doing. Your creative ideas flow and the path that lies before you is unlimited. What’s the next intuitive step? You know that what you choose will bring you joy. It’s the obvious next stage in your journey — what you want to learn, what you long to share. You’re actualizing your truth based on all the experiences you’ve had.

You’ve been in that mindset before, and you’ve felt the rush of exhilaration. But when you come down from that mental high, even briefly, that’s when you start to doubt yourself. You worry about how “realistic” it is for you to take that next step. The connection seems lost.

How do you recover? How do you regain your confidence and sense of purpose? Like anything, it’s a matter of practice. Go back to your previous joyful line of thinking and keep the momentum going. Imagine new ways to incorporate your passions in your daily life. Change your perspective by pursuing a healthy pleasure — eat some fresh fruit, have a warm bath, snuggle up with a good book, meditate in a cozy chair, or doodle on a napkin. Take the next intuitive leap, on a smaller scale. What can you easily do, right now, that is one baby step closer to your goal?

We’re each here to express our unique thoughts and creations, whether it’s in a traditionally creative field such as art or writing, or by inventing a new gadget, or being the best parent you can, or building the perfect chicken coop. Your life is your art, and only you can polish it so it reflects the beauty in your heart. You’ll know you’re on your way when you get that joyful, exuberant feeling of connection.

If you’re not there, you might want to ask yourself, “What am I choosing to do, and why?” There are millions of ways to express the ideas that you create when you’re daydreaming. Decide to take action based on joy rather than fear. You might be happily surprised where it leads you.

Purple Tapestry (or Spiritual Nom Noms)
by BlackLion

Infinite starlight,
Infinite dreams,
Infinite sunshine,
Infinite joy.
If the hearth-fire stays warm,
Can I still come home again?
If I fall asleep in your arms,
Can I still remember?
Breathing is the most intimate act,
Can I relax now?
If the power to heal is within,
What can I live without?
What if the words I say,
Have more meaning when I am silent?
Do I have to stay tuned in,
If the news is old?
I remember now.
Like I always have.
The advice I receive,
Only matters if it jives!
Open your heart,
Let the sun beam out
And let your joy seep, steep, bubble, and boil.
And remember to spread your arms out wide,
Blow a big kiss to the universe,
And bow in thanks.

Kids go to school, and then when they are adults, they go to work. Right?

Not necessarily.

Through the lifelong (their lives) process of homeschooling her kids, Starcat discovered unschooling. It is also known as child-led learning, and involves learning by living life and pursuing one’s interests and passions. When BlackLion joined the family, he figured, “Why limit it to kids? If they can do it, I can do it!” So he left his full-time job in December 2007, and Starcat did the same in May 2008. We’ve been spending time with family and friends, writing books, gardening, and having fun. We also have a wonderful support group of families who meet each week to play and learn together.

So how do we “make a living?”

BlackLion does some consultant work, mostly at home. Starcat does a little consulting for her former workplace, but is mostly the full-time Mom and facilitator for the kids’ learning process. Quester is working for himself as a landscaper and contractor. He has time to play in his rock band, Freakwitch, because he creates his own schedule. We keep our expenses down by living simply, reusing and re-purposing the things we need, which is not only in line with our green ethics but is also thrifty.

We’ve co-written a vegan Pagan cookbook which has been submitted to publishers, and are working on two more books, on spirituality. We have time to do some volunteering in our community, including writing for and editing a statewide Pagan newsletter. We’ve traveled, too, to a SCA event in Pennsylvania which was two weeks of fun and education for all of us, and BlackLion recently returned from volunteering at the RawSpirit Fest in Maryland. We look forward to more travel and meeting new people – it’s a great way to learn about a wide variety of topics. We hang out with family, friends and our beloved cats and dog.

And we’re certainly not the only ones living this lifestyle! We’ll give some resources and links, below. There are many families across the U.S. and the world who are discovering the joys of spending time together and having fun. In fact, an unschooling conference, ReThinking Education, recently took place in Texas, with the usual kid-focused topics augmented by discussions of how the parents can create the sustainable lives they want to live.

Our current focus is to create abundance and prosperity for ourselves and our communities. We’re thinking of combining our desire for travel with offering to speak to groups of people about what we’ve been learning, and perhaps writing travel articles about the places we visit. We’d love to collaborate with others who are interested in our passions: raw and vegan foods, unjobbing, unschooling, writing, spirituality, drumming, yoga, books, art, the Law of Attraction, cats and faeries (of course), and whatever else might strike our fancy.

Some resources:

Books:

Unjobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook by Michael Fogler
The Four-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
Radical Unschooling: A Revolution Has Begun by Dayna Martin
Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling Ourselves by Alison McKee
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn
The Science of Success: The Secret to Getting What You Want by Wallace D. Wattles

Websites:

TUT’s Adventurers Club
The Sparkling Martins
Abraham-Hicks
Radical Unschooling
ReThinking Education conference
Rite Food & Company

Well, we haven’t really been away from Ing. Not that you could – it just keeps happening and flowing, on and on like that. So, we’re back to the process of describing Ing in our own way. We thought we’d share some of it with you.

“Ing is everywhere!

“On a camping trip near Enchanted Pond in Maine, an appropriate location to have an epiphany, Starcat and BlackLion discovered ing. Ing wasn’t hiding from us, nor was it created when we discovered it. Instead, we let go of old ways of thinking and saw the world anew. We saw a world of change and of an ancient love and knowledge. We discovered that within us, and all things, there was an ever-present love, compassion, and understanding, a connectedness that goes to the very source of our existence. We realized that we are love and that the universe is all one continuous process – everything we can see or imagine is all part of the dance, all moving and constantly recreating itself, all part of ing!”

Meanwhile, BlackLion is chopping up veggies for a delicious salad with his own Goddess-style dressing. There’s a fire ready to be lit in the fire pit, and the Moon is peeking through the trees. The kittens are out enjoying their frolicking, so we’ll leave you to yours.