My 30 Day Challenge: Tubeing it old school

I love TED talks. They always make me want to completely rebuild my life - or rather, they make me believe that I can, that we can all make huge changes. The risk is, of course, that you spend so long watching TED talks that you never get around to making any of those changes a reality.

This one here is pretty cool, and brilliantly illustrates the power of the baby step:

Slow living cannot be rushed

There is nothing more tragic than having to throw away an entire unsliced loaf of fresh homemade bread.

Totally screwed up by rushing and/or being overambitious this week: one pair of net curtains, almost finished but now hours of unpicking and resewing away from completion; one loaf of homemade bread which was not given enough attention; one Saturday afternoon which should have been relaxing but wasn't.

Architecture and its impact

I never realised before how much of an impact the architecture of your home has on your daily life and rhythms.

One week in our new home, and already there's a marked difference. Previously, the activities which I saw as part of my simple living journey - crafting, baking, faffing around on the internet researching - seemed to pull us apart rather than bring us together. I would be drawn into a different room, a different rhythm, and I spent far too much time with headphones in listening to the radio or watching historic re-enactments, period dramas and other sources of entertainment information.

Happy Imbolc!

Happy Imbolc, everyone! Unfortunately I've not had much time to celebrate today as we're mid-move but I think, as the start of spring, Imbolc is probably an auspicious time to set up and settle into a new home so I still feel in touch with the day's significance. Although I can't really claim to have been meditating mindfully whilst I scrubbed the new bath-tub...