Favourite Thing

My kiddo is very much into trains. I've been promising to take him on a train for months now; since we moved to this little city, we've driven past the train station almost every time we go in the car, just to see if there's any trains. We've pedalled past, and doubled back to wait for trains to come when we hear the signals go. We've watched on foot as trains have rumbled past the train playground. And then we finally went on a train.

It's the most wonderful thing, watching your child step out of their comfort zone and grow, become more worldly, bigger, braver. We arrived at the station and got a special ticket - special because the trains were running free and we didn't need it, but the lovely fellow in the office realised the nature of our trip and knew how special a ticket can be, for an almost three year old. A thing to have, in his hands, that he can take home and remember his train trip by. We waited on the platform with anticipation, and as the train rumbled in, people started to flock forward to get on, my beautiful kiddo hit his wall. It's one thing to watch the trains go by from a distance, another entirely get on the train. So I bundled him up, kicking and screaming, and on we got.

The tantrum lasted about 30 seconds (thankfully) and we found a seat by the window. He was cuddled up to me like a koala as we started to move off, but within 5 minutes I had been kicked off the seat and took my place next to him. And he had grown up, a little bit more, in that short space of time.

We didn't go far. Twenty minutes later we hopped off at a little town, waved goodbye to the train as it continued on its journey, and wandered into town to find a playground and some lunch. Had I been more organised I would have packed a picnic lunch for us, but I was not, and a cafe lunch has become a bit of a rare treat for us now.  So we found a sweet little place, just perfect really, and enjoyed a simple and lovely lunch together. He charmed everyone at the cafe and then we wandered our way back to the station, to wait for the homeward bound train.

And of course this time on the train, he was a seasoned traveller, taking it all in his stride, confident and comfortable, over-confident and boisterous.

Days like this remind me just how fleeting it all is, being a parent. Watching a little person grow in front of your eyes, it's so easy to miss the changes, the growing up, all the little things. When we chatted at dinner about our favourite part of the day, we both said going on the train was our favourite thing. In truth every part of the day was my favourite thing. I'll be dragging him back to do it again soon, I think.

Talking About Food

Food is a pretty huge thing, really, isn't it? When I think about how much goes into growing food in the garden, how much I can actually produce for us, how much I can rely on that as opposed to buying food... I'm a long way from where I'd like to be, that much I know. I get a good summer season of tomatoes, but I'm not even close to growing enough (and processing enough) to see us through the winter. Same goes with potatoes, although I'm closer with potatoes than with tomatoes. I think last year we were eating homegrown well into late Autumn. And as much as I would like it to be otherwise, my winter vegie gardening has been inconsistent at best. I would like to change that.

But the fact for me is, the vast majority of the food we eat in this house still comes from a supermarket, or from a store somewhere. I am tending now to shop more in smaller, independent stores rather than the big supermarkets whenever I can, mostly for dried pulses, fruits and vegetables and some household items where I can get them. But I still find myself back at the big supermarkets often enough. I suppose the driving factors for me are the freshness of the food, and whether or not it is organic. And how much it costs, that factor is still pretty important, especially when comparing the organic to the non-organic.

I flat out refuse to buy fruits and vegetables that are imported (ok, with the odd exception being garlic from Mexico when I'm desperate for garlic). It's not that I don't think the produce is good enough; of course it is, for what it is. It's just that I want to buy food that has had less time in storage, that has travelled less distance, that is fresher and healthier. I want to eat food that is in season, in our seasons. The early appearance of grapes and watermelons from the US is a big one - explaining to my kiddo why we can't buy it yet when we pass them at the supermarket. And I want my food to be free of pesticides, or genetic modifications. I want to eat food that was grown naturally in healthy soils, as close to home as possible. Obviously some things have to come from far away - coconuts and bananas don't grow so well around here. So I suppose the choice then is, to eat those things or not to eat those things. I'm still eating those things.

The reality is that everything is energy, you know? And the best energy, the highest vibrating energy with the most life force, comes from fresh, organic produce. And what we eat, what we take into our body, has a huge impact on our own energy! Our own vibration, our own life force. So when we consume foods that are on the lower end of the scale (manufactured anything), we are lowering our own energy, we are reducing our own life force energy (Chi, or Qi). Think about pesticides, they are designed to destroy life. That's a pretty low energy to be taking into our bodies. And that has a pretty big impact on our life. It impacts on how well we function, how positive or negative we are, our physical health, our ability to make positive change in our lives, our ability to operate at our highest potential, our energy levels, our overall wellbeing.

It is costly to shift to organic produce, I'm walking that tricky line between balancing the food budget and giving us the best food, and I would love to say we eat all organic but it's just not true. Still, making small changes here and there, they all add up. I do believe the small changes are the important ones, day in and day out. Little things, like organic tea (or coffee). Cutting out processed drinks. My last stand, my last guilty pleasure, is the hot chocolate that I like to have. Since I stopped drinking coffee it's become a little more prominent, but still I notice every single time that I get a little stomach pain when I drink it. My body speaks to me, tells me what it needs and what it doesn't, and the more I cut out the things that are no good, the louder I can hear it. Sensitivity increases, when you take away the things that dull it.

It's something I'm focusing on more this year, even more than usual. Starting with buying a local organic vegie box from a local farm, and I'll just see how we go with it. Little changes, big changes, all positive changes; always has a positive effect on your life.

Working With The Energies: Full Moon

There's a big and powerful full moon coming up this Sunday. The full moon is always time of letting go of things that no longer serve us, things that are not healthy for us, things that are not in our highest good. It's a really beneficial practice to actively work with the energies of nature; we are one with nature and we feel the effects whether consciously or unconsciously. Think about the effect of the moon on the tides and the ocean. Our bodies are something in the order of 70% water - we too, are affected by the moon.

So yeah, letting go. Life moves in cycles, and there are always things coming and going from our lives, big things and little things. People, situations, emotions, feelings, physical items. We are in a constant dance of energy, things moving in and moving out, the give and the take. The bringing in of the new, and the letting go of the old. It is impossible to bring in anything new when we're clinging on to the old, the things that no longer serve us. And the time of the full moon is the best time in the month for letting things go.

On the physical side of things, it could look like doing a space clearing in your house. Or a spot of decluttering, cleaning, sorting. It's always good to get into the spaces that don't see much movement - in the corners, under the bed (particularly around the bed head area), behind furniture. Even cleaning out the fridge, or at least tossing out the really sad looking bits. Taking all items from surfaces and cleaning, thinking carefully about what to put back and what can go. Burning sage to clear the space is beautiful and ceremonial and brings a freshness to the home.

When it comes to people, places, situations, substances, it can be helpful to take a good look and think about what needs to go. Not that I'm saying kick people out of your life (unless you really need to!) but more about circumstances with people. An ongoing disagreement or irritation, an old emotional pattern that isn't helpful anymore, a situation where ingrained patterns are the norm and you can see the need for change. That sort of thing. For those things, there are many ways you can let go, a good one is to cut the cords of energy going from you to that person/situation/feeling). Just close your eyes, and let your body, your mind, show you where the cords are. Then you can visualise cutting them yourself, with scissors or the like, or you can call in higher powers, like Archangel Michael who can cut them with his sword. All very powerful stuff, any which way you do it.

And for the body, holding the intention of letting go of anything that doesn't serve you over the coming days will work. A dip in the ocean, in the salt water, is a wonderful way to clear the energetic space of the body, and if you can't get to the ocean, taking a sea salt bath at home works beautifully too. A time of eating well, eating fresh foods that nourish the body, avoiding harsh foods or those that get the body all wound up. A time for detoxing.

This is what the full moon is wonderful for. That and sending emotions a bit all over the place. Carrying a piece of Moonstone helps with that emotional stuff.

I'm feeling this full moon energy building quite strongly. Over the past year I've gotten pretty good at letting go of stuff, not always entirely comfortably. So I'll be taking it pretty easy, being gentle with myself, knowing that I'm closer to my emotional edge than I'd like to be. And holding that space with the intention of letting of all that no longer serves me. I'll be doing yin yoga and having sea salt baths if anyone is looking for me.

Have a great weekend!

In a word, Gentle.

Oh, the word for the year thing.

I do have a word for the year, and I have been living and breathing that word for a few weeks now. Quite a lot more weeks to go but I can feel so strongly that this is how my year feels, how I feel, how the energy around me feels, how the energy I create feels.

My word is gentle.

After the last few rollercoaster years of my life, where there have been big shifts, powerful shifts, big events and many changes, life has felt jolted, frantic and hectic. It's been quite the ride, but moving forward, and taking with me all that I have learned from these last few years (and letting go of so much at the same time), I'm ready to embrace gentler times in life.

Gentle with myself, gentle with my child, gentle in my home, gentle in my energy. Being in gentle places, staying away from places that are not so gentle. Being with gentle people, staying away from people who are not so gentle. After all, it is up to us to choose how we spend our time, who we spend it with, where we spend it. And how we feel.

So this is my gentle year. There are massive challenges coming my way this year, already I know this, so my need to dig deep and cultivate gentle is very real. I will be drawing from a very deep well, to bring gentle through with what is coming up. But these times, they are the transformative ones. Yin yoga is helping me amazingly already (there I go about the yin yoga again), I can see it will be a mainstay for me this year. A practice I can sink into each evening, where I can just be in my body, know the safety and security of just being, and breathe gently through this year.

Did you choose a word for the year?

Sit and Meditate

Morning sun hitting the Zebra Jasper.

I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on meditation and some practical ideas for helping with it, if it's something you're interested in bringing into your life (and if you already meditate). I get frustrated when I read some meditation blogs and web pages and see how complicated people can make the process. It really is very simple. Perhaps that is where the complexity lies, that we just can't deal with that level of simple.

A full breath cycle, watched with full awareness, is meditation. It is that simple. The hard part is sitting still in that space, holding that space, concentrating on the breath cycle, over and over and over again. We want to move. Our mind screams at us and flatly refuses to concentrate on the breath. It wants to think about what's for dinner, or that movie we saw last night, or about the washing that needs to be brought in, the floors that need to be vacuumed and the bills that need to be paid. And the body, well the body doesn't want to sit still any more than the mind does. It wants to fidget, it wants to get up and move, it demands that you move and plays all sorts of tricks on you to get you to move. You suddenly get an itch, that you simply must scratch. Your nose decides to drip, goodness knows you can't let that happen. Your legs scream at you that they will go numb, and then they actually do start to go numb - you can't possibly sit through that.

Actually, you can.

I suspect a lot of would-be meditators give up out of frustration that they're not doing it 'right' when all these sorts of things happen. That it's not turning out how the book/webpage/teacher said, that this supposed blissful meditative state is anything but blissful and that there is something wrong with what they're doing, or they just can't do it. Which is very sad, because in reality, these things happen to everyone. The trick is simply to just be aware of it, and come back to the meditation, every single time.

Every time the mind wanders to think about the washing, there is a moment when your awareness tells you - oh, my mind has wandered, I'm not focused on my meditation at the moment, I'm thinking about the washing. This point, where you become aware of the wandering mind, this is the point where you strengthen your meditation, by going back to the meditation (whatever the focus of the meditation may be). And that is a wonderful thing! That is a new moment of awareness, of choosing to notice the mind wandering, and simply bring it back to the meditation. And this can happen over, and over, and over, and over and over. And that is a meditation. And that is perfect. You can think of the meditation like sitting at a train station, watching trains (thoughts) come and go, and letting them come and go, without worrying about them or getting attached to them. Just keep coming back to the meditation.

And the body, when it tells you that it simply cannot sit still, when every cell of your body wants to move, even just a little bit, that is another beautiful place to build awareness and stillness. Because every time it comes up, where you feel you must move, have to move, but choose instead to sit still anyway, that is strengthening the stillness of meditation. Stillness begins in the body, not the mind, so allowing the stillness to strengthen is an important aspect of meditation. If you simply notice the itch without scratching, what happens? Eventually it disappears. If you nose drips, what happens? Our hygienic programming tells us all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. And if our legs go numb, get pins and needles, what happens? Well, they get pins and needles. You might have to sit for a few minutes more when you come back out of the meditation, give them time to recover, but nothing else happens.

This is not a post about actually doing a meditation, this is simply my thoughts and experience about the process of meditation. There's this idea that you have to have a 'quiet mind' and that if you don't, you're not doing it right. And that's such an unrealistic expectation to hold. Some days, the mind will wander and chatter and jump all over the place, and that's ok. And some days the body will want to fidget, will find strange aches and pains, will refuse to sit still, and that's ok too. And on some other days, the mind is less active, calmer, quieter, and that's ok. And some days the body loves it, wants to sink into the meditation, finds so much peace in sitting still, and that's ok too. My own experience is that the days of calmer mind and peaceful body are more frequent the longer you do the practice (I'm talking a long time, a lot of years). But even then, there are times when the mind races and the body fidgets. It's called being human, and the only thing that makes a meditator is the ability to sit with that, accept it and not attach to any of it. Sometimes, the greatest insights come from the busy mind/fidgety body days.

There is only one thing that makes a meditation a good one for me - and that is simply doing it. Whatever happens in that meditation is not the point. Sitting, showing up, doing the meditation, that is the point.

In Breaths and Out Breaths

The things we collect on our walks.

In breath, and out breath. In breath, and out breath. Repeat, over and over and over again. This is how we live our life, right? In breath, out breath. In breath, out breath. Something we perhaps take for granted most of the time.

Some of my earliest meditation training was in watching the breath, but not in the usual cliche way of just 'watch your breath'. It was more like being in full awareness of every moment, every part of the breath cycle, and took concentration to stay with. A very deep practice, simple but deep and one I still do, because it's wonderful.

On the inhale, notice the beginning, the middle and the end (the point where you have finished inhaling). Notice a pause, where air is transferred in the lungs, some in and some out. Notice the beginning, the middle and the end of the pause. Notice the exhale, the beginning, the middle and the end. And notice the space at the end of the breath, once the exhale has ended but before the next inhale begins. So spacious.

I love that space. That space, in between the breaths, that is the space where the quiet mind can be found. The commonly held idea is that meditation is trying to quiet the mind, yet to me, that's going the wrong way about it. The mind is what it is, it wants to think and to chatter and to always be going. The body is the place of stillness, the breath; using the mind to focus on the stillness of the body, the mind is so full of concentration that there is no space for thoughts. That place between the ending of the out breath and the beginning of the in breath, that is the place where, if you are concentrating on the rest of the breath cycle, you will find the stillness of mind. It is fleeting, it is momentary, the mind wants to attach to it and think about it. And then the next in breath comes along. The more you connect to that space in between, the easier it is to find it again, and again, and again.

And then I look at our days, the in breaths and out breaths and spaces in our days. The times when we're doing, moving, and the times when we let go and rest. There must be a balance, between the moments in our days of doing things, and the moments when we pause. The in breath of action, the out breath of letting go. The pause between the two, and the space at the end. I know that in my days, I can work towards a greater balance; less of the in breath and doing, more of the out breath and letting go. Bringing rhythm, harmony, the beat of life to our days.

Because in the end, one day there will be no more breaths, so we might as well notice and appreciate them while we're here. It just is how it is.

Finish Something Old

I started working again on a crochet blanket that I started almost a year ago now I suppose. With yarns that I had to rush out and buy, about a year before that. It's been a slow one, that's for sure. But it felt so good to pick it up again, work out where I had left off, realise a mistake in the last piece I had been working on (probably why I stopped), undo the mistake and start going again. And now it is going again, I want to keep up the momentum and bring this blanket to life.

We're currently under a retrograde Mercury, if you're into your astrology you'll know what I'm talking about. Every three or four months, Mercury does this funny thing where it appears to be going backwards (it's never really going backwards, but from our view, it looks that way). It lasts for about three weeks. And the effect on us here on Earth, can also leave us feeling like we're going backwards - or not necessarily backwards, but going back to something, redoing, revisiting, revising. All good and helpful things really.

Mercury retrograde gets a pretty bad reputation from most sources - don't make travel plans, don't sign a contract, don't start anything new... don't don't don't! Blah. It is what it is and we can choose to use the energies to help us or we can fall into the negativity trap about it. I used to do the latter but these days I'm doing the former. Life whizzes past in a blur and any chance to go back and catch up on the things missed on the first pass is a good thing. Personally, I like contracts with a little wiggle room (or a lot!), so I'm all for signing contracts under Mercury reverse.

So why not make the most of the current astrological weather, and finish something old? Have you got any old projects sitting around waiting for 'some day'? I have more than enough, but I'll focus on my blanket project for now. It's a good way also to value what we already have, going back and seeing what we have left unfinished, rather than always rushing on to the next new thing. Simple, mindful, wonderful.

Getting Dirty.

My little one is so happy to wander around barefoot everywhere. Me, not so much. I have this thing with dirt. I love having it, I love digging in it, I love growing plants in it, but I'm not so keen on getting it on me. Unless it comes from a few hours spent riding my bike, then I'm happy to bask in my dirt tan, but otherwise, not so keen on dirt.

I don't think I was always this way. I remember as a kid, going to my horse riding lesson each week and afterwards, I would want to stay in my (dirty, grotty) riding gear as long as possible and I didn't want to wash my hands, because they smelled like horse. Which I loved. Now? Well, I suppose I became a grown up, or perhaps, I became responsible for keeping the house clean and free from dirt, and horse.

I imagine there is a continuum of sorts for dirt tolerance, and my little one is somewhere at the very high tolerance end and I am somewhere at the very low tolerance end. And I wonder how healthy it is to be where I am. It's almost like I've developed a little anxiety about it. I'm certainly super vigilant about not bringing dirt into the house, and I'll acknowledge that I'm a little too vigilant about it.

This little one teaches me every single day, showing myself to me, showing me all the parts of me that have become - out of touch, I suppose. I mean we are creatures of the Earth as much as any other animal, yet we build ourselves nice clean houses and have nice clean clothes and remove ourselves from it, keep it 'out there'. But in doing that, we lose touch with our connection to our Earth, and with much of our abilities to ground, and to sense, feel, from contact with the Earth. Quite literally, our feet are designed to sense things from the ground up, and yet we cover them up, most often in synthetic materials, and lose our ability to tune in and connect with the Earth. We do ourselves a disservice.

I know it is something I need to work on, relaxing myself enough to forget about keeping the house (and me) clean and instead, focus on enjoying the moments of connection, through bare feet on the Earth. Not just on the special days when we go to the beach or to a park and kick off our shoes, but in the everyday. In the vegie garden, is probably a good place to start.

Taking lessons from my kid, every single day.

Mindful in the Moment

For my 21st birthday, quite a few birthdays ago now, my mum gave me a book called Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love by Stephanie Dowrick, because I suppose at the time, life was feeling a little bit shit. So it was an early introduction to ideas of mindfulness, although that wasn't a specific subject of the book, perhaps more an undercurrent to the ideas she presents. I still have the book and it's one that I pick up from time to time now, flipping to a page here or there and and revisiting her wisdom.

Like it or not, the past year of life has presented many opportunities for me to practice mindfulness. In those moments when life feels like it is closing in, when it feels like events beyond your control but that which deeply affect you are threatening to submerge you, when it almost feels like you can't breathe, can't think, and you want more than anything for life to be different to how it is. Those are the moments when you need mindfulness. Or perhaps I should say, those are the moments when you truly learn mindfulness.

In mindfulness, it doesn't matter what may be going on around you. All the worries and niggles and thoughts that can keep a mind racing and a body tense, they all get put aside. It happens moment by moment. Watching the steam rise from a hot cup of tea, watching your arm, your hand as you life the cup of tea, noticing deeply how the tea tastes and feels as you take a sip. That is a moment of mindfulness. Hanging the washing out to dry, pegging each item carefully, folding it again when you bring it in - slowly, carefully, methodically. Mindfully. Feeling the warm sun on your back, truly watching your child be absorbed in the world of play, feeling the breeze on your cheek. That is a moment of mindful.

For all that we experience in our lives, the things we call good and the things we call bad, in all of that, we still function, we still live. We have a choice of either getting caught up in our head, worrying about this, wondering about that, figuring out the other; where our breath becomes shallow and our thoughts are on things far removed from what we are doing in that moment. Or, we can choose to live in the moment, breathing deeply into the belly, attention focused on the task at hand, mind engaged on what is, now. On the one hand it may make no difference, but actually, it makes all the difference. And in every single moment, we have that choice, of being mindful or absent-minded.

Being mindful in the moment may not change what is happening in your life. Things happen that are beyond our control - other people, situations, circumstances. But it does change you - how you breathe, your state of mind, your level of wellbeing. How you breathe your breaths is entirely up to you - shallow or deep. What you focus your mind on is entirely up to you - present or absent. Whether you choose to notice the little things in everyday life or miss them all while you worry about this, that or the other - that is all up to you. All of it comes down to mindfulness, and mindfulness is something that is inherent within us and easily developed. Moment by moment.

So how do you practice mindfulness? It is so simple, and perhaps that's where the difficulty lies. Be aware, right now, in this moment. Are of your breath. Is it deep and restorative, or shallow and weak? What are you doing, in this moment, how is your posture, are you hunched over and tense, or relaxed, with open lungs? Are you carrying tension in your body anywhere right now, and if you are, can you release it? Are you focused on what you are doing, really noticing each action, or are the mind and body in separate places?

When we consciously decide to become mindful, we choose to fully engage with our life. The stressors in life may not go away, but their impact on your life, on your quality of life, on your wellbeing, are so much smaller. So much smaller. It is a skill for life, to be mindful and to live in the moment, and one that deserves more attention, especially in the world we now live in.

The more mindful I become, the more aware I become of how often I'm not mindful. Yet every moment, every breath, brings a new opportunity to be present to life.

A Walking Meditation

a moment of mindful

I was flipping through the latest issue of Slow magazine recently and somewhere in there I saw a reference to a walking meditation. It really caught my eye, it's something I haven't done for many years now.

I learned how to do it when I put myself onto a 3-day Tibetan Buddhist meditation retreat, a long time ago now (which was an eye opener for me, as I didn't really know how to meditate before that and it was a fairly intense way to start). Anyway many of the meditation practices I learned then I kept going with, but the walking meditation I did not. I tried it a few times at home after that but I found it too awkward, trying to be in a meditative state, walking super slowly in the back yard and knowing my housemates thought I was kinda weird. So it just slid and I didn't even think of it for years. Until that  reminder in the magazine.

The way my body jumped at the thought, I knew it was time to go back to that practice, even just for a few minutes here and there. Such a soothing, gentle way to slow down, ease a racing mind, settle frazzled energies and become centred and grounded. I got up in my living room, and began walking slowly, very very slowly. Mindfully with each step, noticing my heel landing on the floor, the movement of my body as the weight was transferred, moving up onto the ball of my foot, rolling onto the toes, watching the other leg lifting from the ground, just bumping the floor as it came through, then the heel striking the floor... and on it goes. Such a simple yet profound practice.

As soon as I started, after a few settling steps and getting slower and slower with each one, I noticed the reiki energy pumping through my hands, the way it does when I get a yoga pose in the sweet spot. What that means is, it instantly got my energy flowing clearly. The chi moving well in my body. And it took about 30 seconds. After only a couple of minutes, I felt transformed from how I had been feeling before. Not that I was feeling bad, it was just a relaxed night at home, pottering around the house, making a cup of tea. But that simple few minutes, it brought me right out of my head and into my body, to a space of just being, rather than thinking this, working out that, doing doing doing.

I am so glad to be reconnected with this simple mindful practice. I noticed that even after I stopped the practice, I was suddenly more connected to my body, my movements; my awareness had shifted so quickly. I already do a daily meditation practice but there is always a case for adding more mindfulness to my day. It's not necessarily one I would schedule in on a daily basis, but having this one to fall back on when I need to stop, slow down, breathe (which is often!) is just wonderful. It's probably more of a practice I can do numerous times throughout my day, rather than setting aside a specific time for it, the way life is now.

A mindfulness practice doesn't have to involve walking (although this is such a great place to start with as you get a really good idea what it is about) - it can be anything you are doing in any moment. It can be washing the dishes, slowly, purposefully, examining each dish carefully, rinsing it slowly, placing it down mindfully. It can be when you're tapping at a keyboard, watching your fingers work their way over the keyboard, slower perhaps than you would normally do, being aware of your posture, your eyes, your neck, your back, your feet, letting go of any tense spots.

Every little moment of slowing down, of being mindful, is a step towards creating a more mindful, deliberate life. A moment of being truly present in your life. Those moments are so precious and often so few and far between for many of us. Threading them together, bringing the moments of mindfulness closer, stringing them together throughout the day. Day after day. A simple walking meditation is a very powerful tool to help bring through those moments of mindfulness, long after the practice itself is finished.

Have you ever tried a walking meditation? How do you stay mindful and present in your days?

(oh and barefoot is the way to go for a walking meditation...)

Midweek Musings: Living Media-Free

We live pretty much media-free here in this little house, my boy and I. We have no TV, we rarely listen to the radio, we buy newspapers during the cooler months to get the fire going, and that's about it. That is it.

Of course we have the internet and I have my phone, so obviously there is a source of media there. But that source is of my choosing, and I choose very wisely. I don't go to any online news sites. If something happens, I hear about it generally through other bloggers or social media sites. I'm choosy about what I follow. And the only advertising I'm ever subjected to is that which I see on blogs. And on the blogs I read, I'm ok with that, as I know the blogger is selective about who they work with.

And do you know what? It's blissful. It really, truly is blissful. We are not bombarded with the over-the-top, hyped out beast that is everyday media. We are not subject to hearing the negative, emotive rubbish our politicians throw about. We don't sit through news bulletins that seem to thrive on drama and negativity. And we are not subject to the manipulation of information by the few, to control the many. We just don't bother with it. I don't bother with it. In my world, it might as well not exist. And it's blissful, it really truly is.

To be honest, we wouldn't have time to watch TV even if we had one. We wouldn't make time. My little boy is growing up without a television to stare mindlessly into. He is instead growing up with a laptop to - stare mindlessly into? I don't know what effect the technology we have today is going to have on our little ones. I sometimes let him watch Xavier Rudd's music channel on You Tube, and he's watched some Clinton Anderson horse training DVD's with me. And that is all.

Short but sweet today. It's really very simple. We don't do mainstream media.