Sigh.
Don’t worry, that’s not one of those sighs of frustration or exhaustion. It’s one of those sighs of contentment – like settling down into the couch, with a hot cuppa and a slice of raisin toast smothered in butter.
It’s also a sigh which goes some way to explain the silence over the last few weeks from the blog as I settle into my new life with a different view out the window.
It used to be that I would write these ditties with the drone of the busy 6 lane road out the front of my tiny flat in bustling North Sydney. I lost count how often I would take a break from work to go out the front and help with yet another car accident, as buses and drivers pushed their way into the city and home again, their minds on something else.
The view was different then too. My glimpse of green was a 2 square metre lawn, the magpies warbling as they spied their early morning worms and my dearly loved veggie patch, which I created to help bring the bush to the city and to feel the grind of soil on my hands mid-week.
Which brings me back to the sigh…
About a month ago, I stopped swiping endlessly through online real estate apps, dreaming about what my life might look like if I moved closer to my beloved Blue Mountains and finally took the plunge. I’d been swiping like this for about a year and realised that unless I actually did something about it, I would find myself still swiping, in time with the endless screeching bus brakes and gear changes out the front, in yet another years time. It sounds like such a no-brainer, but if I wanted things to look different, I needed to do something different.
So I did.
I upped sticks (what a strange phrase!) and headed for the sticks.
I called this post connecting to my why, because over the past 12 months or so I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts (my favourites are listed at the bottom) that talk about slow living, de-cluttering or simplifying and other topics associated with purpose. One of the first I watched was Simon Sinek’s TED talk about the Why. One of my big “why’s” is connecting to the vulnerable and authentic person that I believe we can become when we spend time in nature. The way that being in the natural environment removes ego and other layers that we’ve built up over time and welcomes our true selves without judgement and opinion.
I want to be closer to that every day. I want to work at things that help inspire others to get closer to it every day and I want to live in community with people and the planet.
Sigh.
It’s not that these goals can’t be achieved in the city and for the majority of us, a move to a smaller regional community is not possible with work and/or family commitments. But for me, with a little re-jigging, I realised that there was nothing keeping me in the city other than habit and the fear of change. Simply put, I’d run out of excuses not to move closer to the bush.
So that brings me to today. Where the view from here (the amazing Blue Mountains Library) is a panoramic one over Mt Solitary, the Jamison Valley and out to Mt Colong.
Co-ordinating my day job clients, who are increasingly becoming aligned with my passion for wild places, whilst remaining dedicated to this blog and channel and the amazing community that you all are.
I want to thank you for being passionate too, thank you for being part of my life outdoors and for sharing your love of wild-ness too.
I get inspired when I hear your stories of adventure and discovery and how you share and inspire others around you to the life outside these walls. How a digital community can actually be all about the natural.
So as I look ahead to the type of community that we’re creating, I’d love to hear from you about what types of information or topics you’d like to see here and ways we could help each other connect to our why.
Sigh.
Podcasts For Pondering
