Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve—the end of a year everyone in our time is claiming as their own personal dumpster-fire of a year. Well, everyone but me I think.
And maybe a few other people who guiltily confessed they moved and changed so much in 2020 that their life is unrecognisable. That life is now amazing and good, and yet they feel they have to keep that quiet. It feels disrespectful to proclaim this year as a great success. But for me, it really was the most extraordinary experience —so much so it truly feels like a trip down Alice’s rabbit hole.
Almost six years ago we went on a holiday to Prana Eco Retreat and came back with a 10 year plan to change how we lived. We wanted to throw off as much of our “training” as possible, and work out what we wanted from life outside of the expectations or “checklists” of success that are embedded in everything we see, hear and were taught. So many questions started to come out of the woodwork for us when we stopped blindly accepting every thought that popped into our heads as real.
How do we untangle all the things we have chased automatically through a lifetime of conditioning?
How do we know what is truly our heart’s desire when our head is full of desires given to us by a world that seems never-satisfied and doesn’t have a finish line we can reasonably expect to reach?
Has our life become one big Pavlovian response… or worse, just a habit?
We developed a plan to shed as much as we could that felt like it was about impressing other people, fulfilling someone else’s expectations or based in fear or insecurity.
At times it was confusing.
At times it was brutal.
At times it caused big arguments.
At times it was unbelievably liberating.
Things started to take shape and we found ourselves hunting for a block of land. In the beginning it felt like we were trying to run away from people so we didn’t feel so much pressure to conform. But as we played with our ideas and questioned everything, our plan grew and we realised how much we wanted to have community around us in some form. We started seeking out connections with other people who felt the same way.
So by the end of 2019 we had finally settled on the Far North as the place we wanted to be. We started moving our thoughts constantly to the absolute inevitability of our plan coming to fruition, even though it seemed totally impossible on paper. We put all our energy into believing it was happening.
Then, in walks 2020, disrupter of everything, and “nek minute” our reality galloped towards our very own piece of land that feels beyond anything we could have imagined 6 years ago.
Our very formal 1920’s suburban bungalow has been traded in for a shack in the wild.
We’re surrounded by our very own land that just keeps expanding in magical ways. We’re slowly adding decadent luxuries such as power, internet and hot water. We’re starting a big journey to learn how to manage springs, gorse, possums, days of baking sunshine and 161 acres of sometimes overwhelming potential.
We’ve also had to work out how to reassure our family and friends that we’re ok—that we haven’t gone mad and that we’re safe and happy.
I don’t know where it will end up, but this place has made me come alive inside. If I have gone mad, please don’t offer me any form of cure. And if you’re up for a bit more crazy in your life then come join me. ❤