The Art of Living in Community, Introduction into the Hippie counterculture Part I

"Build it and they will come."  This phrase has floated in and out of my head for over a decade now and at various stages in my life during my early 20's.  At this point in my life, I was nearing graduation for my Bachelor's degree from a University in Florida. Born and raised a Floridian through and through, I had a pretty typical upbringing in the South (as I was from Northern FL).  Religion was a big influence during my preteen and teen years.  Although, my parents never raised me in a church it was more through my friends and socailization that I found myself spending my Wednesday nights and Sundays going to church with different groups of friends.  I genuinely enjoyed being in groups of people.  I pretty much hit all denominations, mega churches, and even the smallest congregation of about 20 or so.   I ate the standard American diet; coming from a meat and potatoes kinda of father. We typically took one vacation a year which was usually a destination within Florida or to visit some family roots in New Jersey.  I didn't really have too much outside exposure to travel, other cultures, foods, or family dynamics.  It was either your parents were still married or you were from a single-parent home.  That's really as diverse as I saw it growing up.

I have always been a rebel at heart and this played out subtly during my childhood years but really was able to spread my wings during college.  Besides the typically transitions you would expect from living under your parents roof to being on your own, I still was rather vanilla looking back at myself. It wasn't until I friended my first "hippie" that my life started to get a little more color (of course, that TIE DYE color) and depth to it.  We met while working together at a holistic chiropractic office in an upscale area in Orlando. She was about 10 years or so older than me.  She was married without children.  And she just oozed kindness and love like I had never experienced before. We would often spend our lunch breaks eating and chatting across the street at a natural grocery store where her husband worked. He was a gentle, calm soul; one who had seen many more lifetimes.   From the moment I met them, I was so intrigued and magnetized as they shared stories of their travels; following musicians, being whitewater rafting guides, and even living out of a van.  Sure I had musical obsessions with Janis and Jimi as a middle schooler but I had never really met people leading such an alternative lifestyle.  It was a breath of fresh air and an immediate connection to my soul.

My new friend was a blossoming student midwife.  She would share stories from class, births and would use me as her study partner for anatomy exams and such while on lunch breaks.  During one of our lunch breaks she told me all about this place called The Farm in Tennessee.  It seemed like the real mecca for everything "hippie".  Intentional communities, self sustaining village, organic farming...my mind was blown and little did I know what this would come to mean for me years down the road in becoming a doula.  I went out and purchased a book about the history of The Farm that to this day I have displayed on my alter.  It was all so fascinating to me and I immediately felt a connection to this way of life.  I wanted to live on The Farm!  I wanted to live in community.  I wanted to build a community.

As our friendship grew so did my heart and mind.  I was introduced to a whole new groups of friends, and activities.  I found myself at drum circles, open mics, organic gardening clubs, vegetarian potlucks and simple living meet ups rather than the local college pubs with people my age.  Along this journey I also made a vow to not work for "The Man".  I wanted to work grassroots style, or for small business owners.  I felt like I was getting to know myself truly for the very first time.  I began to research farming stewardships across the globe and visited local organic farms.  I dove in head first yet my relationship at the time wasn't swimming along, rather drying up.

Needless to say, I never fulfilled that dream of working on an organic farm.  I was able to survive until I was about 26 years old of not working for "The Man".  I caved and began working for Corporate America for a brief stint until just recently.  But what I did gain was a whole new ideology, one that wasn't so stale, conforming and self centered.  I had found me, my mantra, a purpose and dreams.

Although I had tucked away that burning desire of living on a farm for sometime.  It sure didn't mean it had disappeared.  And it definitely did not mean I had given up.  That's not the kind of person I am. And that's not how the Universe works and provides.  Life had moved on for the time being but little did I know that the progression of my life path would lead me into communal living offerings.  Ones that I completely obliged.  

Some of the great people and places that paved my road...
The Farm
http://www.thefarm.org/

Simple Living Institute
http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/

Sweetwater Organic Community Farm
http://sweetwater-organic.org/

The Art of Living in Community, The Brown Compound- Part II coming soon.....

Dear Soleil, I cannot wait to share this with you! My journey in trying to remember...all of this!

The first gift I received from Alex when we found out we were expecting was The Belly Book. Certainly, I would start here, document my entire pregnancy then move on to the baby book.  It's just expected that most women would want to keep track of all these precious moments especially during a time when thoughts seem to get lost in a restless mind and memories fade.  I know I was excited about the gift and the thought of tracking my pregnancy over the next nine months sounded cool.  And would you believe it, I SUCCEEDED!  I actually completed my entire pregnancy book, printed pictures and all! Now, here I am as a new, first time mama trying my hardest to document all these sweet moments of my baby girl.  Forget remembering all this; the memories of my birth are already quickly fading and I cannot even remember what I did yesterday!  For me this is important, not only would I like to look back on major milestones, but to also relive our first bonding moments. What a joy it will be to share with her when she is older!  I loved seeing my silly little baby pictures throughout the years as the time arose to fumble through old picture books with family.  So many ideas came to mind; journaling, traditional baby books, apps, keeping a tight organization of my photos by month (you laughed at that one didn't you?!?!?!)....it was overwhelming and exhausting just thinking about it all.  Someone even gifted me those monthly sticker props to take cute photos each birth day for the first 12 months....this is as far as I got before I spaced it!  Just like Sunny here, I was excited about it for a second then the thought just faded off into the baby brain abyss.

Documenting Sunny's adventures became most apparent to me one particular day I spent with my own mother during my pregnancy.  My parents divorced when I was very young, around the age of 4.  I always lived with my dad growing up and spent time visiting my mother at specified times.  My mother moved around a lot, traveled and changed jobs often I can remember.  I knew she was a sentimental person, so creative, artistic and loved her keepsakes. But she blew me away one day when she told me she had some things of mine to share with me from my childhood.  Next thing I knew she had pulled down two Tupperware bins full of my baby clothing, items from my first nursery and small keepsakes.  I even recognized some pieces from old photos! How in the world did she move all this from place to place for over 30 years!  We laughed and cried together going through everything piece by piece.  I will always remember and cherish that day with my sweet mama!  From this moment on I knew I wanted to do this with my daughter someday whether I save some baby items, artwork, photos, etc.  I just knew I wanted to share all of this with her one day.  So how was I to preserve all this?!?!

My sweet mama with my now incredible vintage baby clothes....best of all they are my vintage pieces! 

How cute is this little Hawaiian shirt...Sunny will totally sport this soon!

A girlfriend of mine just had a baby girl as well.  We were only a month apart and she was feeling the same way, until a friend shared this video with her.  She encouraged me to do the same.  It would be by far the easiest, quickest, and most savvy way to surely capture all of the fun.  Take a look and if you are anything like me have a tissue handy!




It definitely is a kick ass video for Google Chrome that's for sure!  For us, this was genius.  Most of the photos we take are from our phones; we can quickly capture moments and send an email right away. So after seeing this video I started a Gmail account for my daughter (make sure to use all your information as the email address cannot technically belong to a child under 12, I believe). I took it a step further and shared the email with all our close friends and family so they can share their special moments together.  Alex and I do not check the email either, so it will be a sweet time for us when we decide to read years down the road.  Now instead of stressing, I look forward to each and every email I write to her.

I'm pregnant - Happy April Fool's Day!!!

It has just hit around a year since our daughter Sunny was conceived- a good ol' St. Patty's Day party babe! Actually, she is Irish, Chinese, and Jamaican- I am from the Sunshine State, Florida and my partner is from Mississauga, Canada.  This makes for quite the mix and a lot of fun and family all over the place.  We started out as a long distance dating relationship.  I absolutely loved my nice long weekends away to Jamaica; every trip was an adventure as Alex showed me a different side of beauty each visit.  I loved when he came to visit me in Orlando.  It was fun to explore, eat and enjoy all those luxuries not offered Jamaica.  In the between time we spent lots of time texting, emailing and FaceTiming....technology is amazing! We always desired to live together and had different ideas and plans along the way.  We were mostly planning on him moving stateside to join me in Orlando, however, nothing was really yet set in stone. As of yet.......

As I was plagued with nervousness of missing a period I toyed with the idea of stopping for a pregnancy test for a few days.  I finally decided to stop of all days...April 1st, otherwise known as April Fools Day, the day of practical jokes.  I thought, perfect, when the test comes out negative it will be a funny joke to play and rather cliche, I know!  As I rushed home to anxiously await the negative result I was of course smacked in the face with those notorious two pink lines.  So I did what any woman would do in this situation is I rushed back to the store for another test after cussing myself for not purchasing the pack of 3 to start.  As you've guessed it, all other tests came out positive as well....we were going to have a baby.  And now to share this news....over FaceTime.  My funny little joke has turned into a major life changing event.  Thoughts started swirling through my head; my job, family, life, money, house and most of all we live in different COUNTRIES!!

As soon as FaceTime connected, the picture was clear, and eye contact was made, he knew!  I just stared at him with no words...after all we were just dating, abroad, both of us just ended long relationships, and no plans on moving together....how was he going to react?!?! I saw that sweet smile in his eyes that he always has for me when he looks at me.  His lips formed into that huge, contagious smile I fall for every time and I just cried.  I cried for happiness and of pure joy.  Knowing from just our simple eye contact we were going to of course make this work.  And we were not only going to just make this work, we were embarking upon this crazy, fun filled, mad, unplanned and unpredictable exploration and we were going to do it 100% TOGETHER.  This very day set my life into a whirlwind of travel itineraries, suitcases, lots of love and a growing belly!

This is our first family photo of 3!  Alex was able to fly in 10 days after the big news to spend the weekend.  And from here the tribe grew......
P.S. I've got to come up with a more original April Fool's joke this year!