It was over 10 years ago that we wrote a blog post about nurturing, simplicity and Slowing Down and we are happy to say we still feel the same way.
We enjoy helping others, being with animals and nature - somehow we have carved out this path. We can manage on a small income with enough money to do what we want...buying decent food is always our priority and maintaining our car. We do want to go on a road trip down to our house in France and that will happen at some point soon, but for now - we continue to creep and go. We live very frugally, but always feel our world is abundant and believe as a result, we often receive wonderful gifts - things we require often show up when needed...food, clothes, wood and books are always gratefully received. The kindness of others just blows us away.
A few weeks ago we met a couple while out doggy walking. It turned out that we had a connection with this couple - the chap's mother had been the housekeeper for one of the grand properties we eventually took on some years ago. We probably chatted for about an hour, which was filled with lots of humour and at the end of our conservation the woman thanked us. We had talked about how folks don't often stop and chat to strangers and they were very happy that we did. She also said that many people miss out on all the little things they may share with others and that we are all connected in some way.
We seem to have come across a few friendly folks whilst out walking lately and we seemed to have dished out lots of pet sitting business cards. It's an exciting time for us to be connecting with so many lovely people and their furry friends, with new opportunities to spend more time with beautiful creatures. We have also learnt how to take care of the animals at home on the farm and it's nice to know we can step in and help.
It's a while ago now that we also looked after our friends' kiddywinks. We realise our cabin isn't really geared up for entertaining the young folk, but we have accumulated a few things over the months. We decided that getting out was the best option, as at the time - we had one of our little doggy pals with us too. We will admit that we are totally out-of-practice when it comes to spending a whole day with youngsters and after a few little challenges, we ventured out to nearby Halliggye Fogou, an English Heritage ancient site.
The guys enjoyed exploring the incredibly dark underground chamber and tunnels. It's the kind of place our kidlets would have also loved at their ages and we're sure they would love it as adults too! We spent a couple of hours walking and exploring, so a lot of excess energy was burnt off. After an ice cream stop, we returned to the cabin to make and eat curry, watch Harry Potter on our laptop and then the chaps left for home. We were totally exhausted that night, but we both felt it was a great achievement - we re-learned how to be with kids again and actually we are pretty good at it.
We do enjoy our simple life - going off pet sitting is wonderful, but we also love being at home....so we have a great balance. We continue to feel such gratitude for our warm and snug cabin, for all the help and support we receive from others, as well as the folks who invite us into their lives and allow us to help and support them too. This is the stuff that really makes the world go round, not money. Water is far more important than money and we feel that there will be scarcity of mains water in the near future - we have seen so many leaks and issues on our travels and just the continuation of problems seems like a nudge to take responsibility. Can you imagine the chaos if mains water was no longer available? We do hope that others think of these things too and at least prepare mentally for what may be a huge challenge. Look into having your own borehole or research into local springs and learn to live with less. We are all capable of doing so much more for ourselves and learning to adapt to this fast changing world in the long term will make us stronger.
Do many people see the world as we do? Or does living without a TV and not engaging in what others believe our heads need filling with (news) make us different? The thing is, everything seems so confusing and nobody can really be sure if what they see on a screen is actually real. What we do know is what is here, where we are right now. We have written lots of blog posts about this subject over the years, here's a couple of them: Switching Off and Intuition. Learn about your own capabilities, get together with neighbours, friends and connect with others, say hello to a stranger...you never know where that will lead.
Move away from fear and follow the path to finding joy. It can be done.
Lots of love,
Kay and Sime xx
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