Immersion

[Things] are more likely to change once you no longer "need" them to. --Scott Noelle

Relating to others in your family might entail lots of interruptions which is hard to think of as *flow*-- but that's what it is ... the ebb and flow in our lives. Which leads to a metaphor of the sea--- and how our lives can be very like the ocean.

We can either dive in and immerse ourselves or try to float, surf or sail on the surface never experiencing what we want in our lives as fully as we could ... and right next to that in our consciousness we see waves that come and go which we consider to be interruptions to our flow as they go back to ebb and then cycle back again.

One of things I've truly enjoyed about attachment parenting and about art and about cooking and laundry and driving the car and housework (yes I actually enjoy it sometimes) is the cyclical nature of it, the opportunity to hone my skill at whatever I put my hand to. It's called process.

And I think the reason I enjoy the cycles in attachment parenting, which can extend into unschooling and so on is because I first experienced process in making art. Creating, and creating again.

With parenting, process is the opportunity to remake ourselves in new ever expanding roles. Lately I've heard from long time unschoolers whose relationship with their children is changing... again ... as they leave the comfortable nest and the way things were changes yet again. It's been very inspiring to me to read these things. More flow. Ocean life. Uncharted as yet until at least one child goes through and then the next child is different. And so on.

As to finding balance itself ... that's a different thought to me somehow. Where's the balance in changing all the time? I haven't found it. I'm not a balanced person and don't know that I want to be. Maybe someday I will want balance. And then if balance is even achievable.. that's a whole nother thought.

I jump from side to side to side and back again and twirl round and round with ideas, I don't think of it as anything like balance. It's more like accumulation of experience and knowledge and the expansion of concepts to encompass more and more and more. It's doesn't remain a jumble of stuff in my head but starts out that way and sometimes it takes a long time to cycle back to connecting dots and find meaning.

Connection. Making more connections. This is all very unschooly. But the process for me is not neat and streamlined. It's an ocean with currents that know where they're going but I am rarely privy to the knowledge. Sometimes I have access to a little chart here and there but certainly not anything comprehensive.

I watch where the currents go and continue to follow them seeing where they take me.

Art. Motherhood. Homelife. Family. Life. It's all like that. The ocean.