Settling in...
It's always wild moving to a new place, so many expectations and dreams that you've hardly noticed. You've built some imaginary castle in which you plan to live out your day-to-day fantasy life.
Though this is not entirely true of our move to Ireland. I mean our house is a bit like a castle, what with the hillside view of the sweeping hills and the.... well I suppose that's the only thing that's castle-like. But Ireland. Wow. You've tipped us on our heads and left us gasping for breath. But we want more!
In the last week we've discovered, re-discovered and uncovered some possibilities for the next stint of our lives, time flies, spirals too quickly and then slows to a snails pace as the wind whips around the perimeter of our winter hide-away.
The nearby town has accepted us and we feel a part of it already. It's slowly sharing it's jewels with us and this past week we've had several. But the most notable was the Sustainable-Clonakilty meeting we all but stumbled upon on Wednesday evening. A small group of locals, head by one who runs the outrageously well-priced local organic shop, gathered to discuss the fate of their town. They blushed when we applauded them on all that had been achieved so far, the recycling and garbage program keeps most large families down to producing only one large bag every 3 weeks. The fact that they are a fairtrade town, with local fairs and markets and shops flourishing, when the rest of the western world seems to be doing these things only to save face. But that is not enough. This small group aims to make the whole area sustainable. And they've been at work at it for 8 months. They've paired up with a city in Austria who will big-brother them through the process. They go next month. They work quick here.
This little town is proving to challenge the way we live and think and encouraging us to push our limits. They'll be plenty of jobs, though volunteer, trying to collect all the data required to design a sustainable system that will work for Clonakilty, and so perhaps we'll have to survive a bit longer without savings and pour our resources into supporting this movement and gaining from all it is sure to offer.
Through all this, what is only 2 weeks but has already seemed much longer, we've been concentrating our efforts to find what we're meant to be doing as independents and how we want to live as a family. We're working on markets, music and our exploding tree artist co-op collective visions and we're sure that more hints and guidance will come with time. Looking forward to sharing the outcome with more updates soon.
xx A & J
Though this is not entirely true of our move to Ireland. I mean our house is a bit like a castle, what with the hillside view of the sweeping hills and the.... well I suppose that's the only thing that's castle-like. But Ireland. Wow. You've tipped us on our heads and left us gasping for breath. But we want more!
In the last week we've discovered, re-discovered and uncovered some possibilities for the next stint of our lives, time flies, spirals too quickly and then slows to a snails pace as the wind whips around the perimeter of our winter hide-away.
The nearby town has accepted us and we feel a part of it already. It's slowly sharing it's jewels with us and this past week we've had several. But the most notable was the Sustainable-Clonakilty meeting we all but stumbled upon on Wednesday evening. A small group of locals, head by one who runs the outrageously well-priced local organic shop, gathered to discuss the fate of their town. They blushed when we applauded them on all that had been achieved so far, the recycling and garbage program keeps most large families down to producing only one large bag every 3 weeks. The fact that they are a fairtrade town, with local fairs and markets and shops flourishing, when the rest of the western world seems to be doing these things only to save face. But that is not enough. This small group aims to make the whole area sustainable. And they've been at work at it for 8 months. They've paired up with a city in Austria who will big-brother them through the process. They go next month. They work quick here.
This little town is proving to challenge the way we live and think and encouraging us to push our limits. They'll be plenty of jobs, though volunteer, trying to collect all the data required to design a sustainable system that will work for Clonakilty, and so perhaps we'll have to survive a bit longer without savings and pour our resources into supporting this movement and gaining from all it is sure to offer.
Through all this, what is only 2 weeks but has already seemed much longer, we've been concentrating our efforts to find what we're meant to be doing as independents and how we want to live as a family. We're working on markets, music and our exploding tree artist co-op collective visions and we're sure that more hints and guidance will come with time. Looking forward to sharing the outcome with more updates soon.
xx A & J
1 Comments:
At Monday, October 13, 2008 3:11:00 PM, Anonymous said…
You write a wonderful tale of your adventures. Keep it up love to read all about your life in Ireland now. Love Aunt Rose
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