Once upon a time there was a family of 7 that lived in a tiny house in a big city. After 10 years of living in their tiny house in a big city, they decided to build a house in the jungle in a place that they didn’t know much about.
They did not know how to build houses…especially in the jungle. They did not know how to immigrate to another country. They did not have guarantees of happiness or ease.
They decided to sell most of what they owned and try anyway.
This family, especially the parents, could not anticipate in their wildest fantasies how it would be done and all the challenges they would face and all the amazing lessons that would be learned along the way.
They didn’t know the amount of patience and tenacity (and money) they would need to get containers to their land, build without electricity and water.
They didn’t know how hard it would be to dig a well on their land and that they would have to build a gravity-fed rainwater tower.
They didn’t know how a single slide and individual bedrooms could help their children feel instantly at home.
They didn’t know that they could live without electricity whiile harnessing a incredible amount of will power from an infinite Source energy and learneing they could tap into whenever they need it.
They didn’t know how their children and adolescent teens could find so much freedom so far away from the city.
They didn’t know they could trust the rhythm of the land and the environment to dictate how they live.
They didn’t know if they would find friends that would become family.
They didn’t know they would have two dogs and two cats.
They didn’t know they would make the choice to move into an unfinished house and trust that everything happens in the right time.
They didn’t know how they would have record rains during the first year they moved in.
They didn’t know that their 11 year old would wake up at the crack of dawn and wake them up to see the colour of the sky – a colour that they had never seen before.
They didn’t know that having their morning coffee on their deck overlooking the jungle and their little pond would feel nothing short of a miracle.
They didn’t know their teenagers would love to be alone in this house in the jungle to balance their social time with friends in town.
They didn’t know how bright the full moon could be or how dark the night could be with the new moon.
They didn’t know that they would feel the mixture of relief, pride, wonder, and confusion of how they ended up in the jungle two years later.
They didn’t know how much faster their plants would grow after watering them with their pee.
They didn’t know they would attend community potluck gatherings in a camp kitchen where the lights would turn off and the children naturally playing in the dark while adults lit candles because most of the children on the farm live or have lived without electricity too.
They didn’t know that their children could sit and be content in a place that on first glance was pure jungle with just a single afternoon sunbeam shining through the trees and the smell of freshly chopped cilantro wafting through the land.
What they did know is that when they made the choice to move to the jungle, they couldn’t worry about the details. They had to trust that this was the path that they needed to take. Their intention was to follow their intuition which sounded a lot like the mom’s grandmother. Their intention was to live a life of YES even with so many unknowns because they knew in the end, they could never know the outcome of their choice.
They knew the only decision they could make would be quick and the one that tested their persistence and faith.
They knew it would be uncomfortable, even painful, and that they wouldn’t have assurances or answers for their children, their family, or their friends.
They knew this decision would mean saying goodbye to their daughter.
They knew it would take courage and faith to leave, to give up old dreams that no longer fit them.
They knew it would be difficult to articulate why. They knew they had to do it.
They knew they had taken leaps before and everything turned out ok when they had a solid foundation of love and support.
They knew this choice wasn’t “for” their children. Living a creative life is never on behalf of someone else.
They knew they would grow.
And they did.
And this family lived happily before and after.
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NEXT…our favourite places and moments on the land in the house…
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