Open your eyes

Cure the Common Cold

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Laura

What should I choose for a heat source? I am still not sure. Full column is featured at Tiny House Listings.

Categories: Forest, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: heat source, nature | 1 Comment

Me & My Shadows

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Laura

The last leaves are now just reflections of nearly forgotten memories, cast like shadows on the wall.

Nelson Mandela said “there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.” I think he is right. I have not yet met the goals that I have set for myself and I know that once I attain these there will always be more. There is always more to come, I think, even beyond death there is more.

I hope that I still have a lot of time to work my life plan out, but one never really knows. It seems to me that my future life is set out like a dinner party to which I have have not been invited yet. Still, I can’t help it! I hope that Judy Chicago set the table for me! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sit in on this dinner party with all the fantastic attendees?

But, I don’t know what this life has in store for me. The future, my future, just like everyone else’s is somewhere just beyond my grasp. My future exists only like the shadows of last years leaves which promise that there will be other springs; other falls.

I think about Aesop’s warning to “beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow”. I could use some illumination, but in these short days when the sun casts so much shadow it is not always easy to find the light that will surely come again. It is easier to focus on the unreachable shadows which are long, sleek, and mysterious.

Thankfully, I can do some shadow exploration tomorrow when I return to THO. I can’t help it! I wonder what is waiting there for me? I know it will be my home, my land, my friends and family. I know that there is a big party at home this weekend coming. What else is waiting in tomorrow’s shadow?

Categories: Art, Erazim Kohák, Family, Forest, Open your eyes, Tiny House Ontario, View, Writing | Tags: nature | 2 Comments

Owning Black Friday

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Laura

Here is an idea…

If you have to buy:

Today, I am not shopping, but I am going to also take some advice from Johnny Cash… I am going to dress in black, in my case to mourn all the wasted resources that the planet gave up because of this crazy consumerism!

Categories: Environmentalism, Money, Open your eyes, Re-Use, Tiny House Ontario, View | Tags: johnny cash, shopping | 11 Comments

Life Moves

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Laura

Before I left Tiny House Ontario, I took a couple of photos inside the house. It always surprises me how much changes there during the day. Not just out in the forest as one would expect but inside of the house too there is always the flux of change.

My art gallery stays pretty much the same because I very rarely sell a piece of my own work. Still I hang them on tiny nails so I don’t damage the wooden walls very much, so they wobble with the wind and are very rarely level. Too, inside, with the switch and the light that I added this year, the wall looks different than it did earlier this summer when I put them up. Outside the window, the gravel is waiting patiently and settling in. The big change will come next year when the collected rocks are added and this becomes a flag stone patio.

The shelved wall is always fluid. From the season that needs heat to the other seasons there is a huge change because all things that freeze are moved to Hamilton with me. Also there are books that come too, because I can’t live the whole winter without them, namely: Erazim Kohák: The Embers and the Stars, Julia Cameron: The Artist’s Way and all of my own writing. The other change is warmth and peace of mind in the form of the heater and the carbon monoxide/smoke detector.

There are always little changes too because I refer to the books, use the games, light the candles, burn the sage and so on. Every tiny thing moves, because life moves and changes. We too move and change, sometimes these are obvious glaring differences like a move to Australia, finishing a degree, finally finding job security, illness and death.

Most of the time, change is barely perceptible; like the changes I refer to here in the photos. Only those who monitor change can see them clearly. I am the sort of person who notices subtle changes and this is why I know that in my life there is a shift happening. I see this as clearly as I see that I did not put the bag of seeds and the candle away in the right spots on the shelves below. I don’t know the impact of these changes, but I know that they are coming.