Fertile Edges: Building More Meaningful Lives
Paradigm shifting away from "more" mindset
Sunset over the water in pastel - art by author
Hi, friends!
I truly am writing to you from in the wild this week. On vacation with my fiance’s family on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, I’m quite literally writing to you from the edge of the Atlantic Coast. There’s something about the sea and its related bodies of water- a bay, sound, inlet, etc.- that invites me very easily into a slower way of being. As much as I love the mountains, the solidity they offer, and the beautiful ways they change throughout the seasons, I find myself most at home at the beach.
To be clear, not touristy beaches filled with Spring Breakers or signs of industrial life, but the untouched wilderness found at the edge of the land, where the sea spreads out into infinity - or at least, that’s what it looks like to the eye. This kind of peace I find at North Carolina’s Outer Banks - more specifically, Ocracoke- here, at Virginia's barrier islands, and at Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Some parts of New Jersey are worth giving a chance.
Maybe it’s the way the tide only obeys the moon, the way my body immediately falls into rhythm with sunrise and sunset, or the fluidity of the water, never in a hurry to get anywhere, that infuses me with a newfound sense that anything is possible.
At this little cottage we have for the week, the owner has lovingly planted a beautiful garden filled with black-eyed Susans, lamb’s ear, wildflowers, lavender, rosemary, other herbs and vegetables, and a fragrant gardenia bush.
Her property is an enchanted microcosm of what it could look like to live more harmoniously. A porch to read on, soil to dig in, water to play in, bikes to ride, and the symphony of bird calls and cicadas to wonder at all day long - what more does anyone need?
It’s only natural that this week I’ve finished The Enchanted Life, by Sharon Blackie.
Towards the end of the book, which I was reading this morning, she points to the structure of work in our lives being a guiding principle for a sane life. It’s not just that we need to work to pay the bills; it’s that work builds character. Work gives us something to get out of bed for.
The enchanted life, Blackie points out, is one in which we no longer view life through the paradigm of “what do you do for work?” or “how is work?” or “career building”, but rather life building. Building lives that are full of meaning, wondering, and questioning - and ideally doing work that fits into a life filled with meaning.
Other movements that align with and fulfill Blackie’s vision for the world include downshifting, minimalism(to an extent), and a movement back towards buying local and a renewed fascination with locally made crafts.
She acknowledges that for many, this isn’t a reality, to have an enchanted and awe-filled career that naturally taps into the creativity inherent in all of us, which is so often snuffed out as we age.
The invitation is to imagine a world in which craftsmanship is valued as much as traditional learning, where each person would have the ability to contribute to their communities in a way that lit them up because that would be seen as the greatest contribution.
The hobbies which we dismiss as silly, or not a way to make a living, or “just things to do on the side” - Blackie invites us to give them the meaning they deserve in our lives.
If the new world order is to reconnect with our inherent creativity, to see the (natural)world as aware as we are, and to value myth and mystery as highly as we do scientific fact, without dismissing science, I have to say that I want in.
Rebuilding our relationship with the Earth, and our relationships with one another, seem more important than ever and perhaps the only way to survive the climate crisis.
I’m not sure what unique gifts I have to bring to the table we’re all sitting around as we try to figure out how to leave behind a better world than the one we inherited. The beautiful thing about the enchanted life, the life that exists once one has extracted themselves from the hamster wheel we’re all put on at much too young of an age, is that it dismisses the myth of progress.
You don’t need to have all of the answers, it says. Just keep asking questions.
What an uncomfortable thing for those of us in the business of selling answers! In the business of being told that there is only one right way to succeed. For example, I’m not republishing my newsletters from this week on my website right away - something I would normally do to ensure that Google knew my website was still relevant trendy, and up-to-date.
I just don’t have the energy. What if this doesn’t represent a failure on my part, but a “success” at finding a new way to live?
I want to know, readers - do you feel called to do something in this life? To play a role in your community? Are you a part of the masses who claim to be satisfied with a job that is not creatively fulfilling? What is the life you envision for yourself?
I think it’s okay to envision lives that suit us more fully than the ones we have right now while still exhibiting gratitude for all we have.
For example, I can create beautiful art in my current home. My fiance and I plan to have an amazing garden one of these years, and we’re going solar! There are little pockets of sacredness in suburbia, from afternoons in the backyard to walks with the dog and moments in my meditation room.
And, I think a part of me would love to live in a small, homely cottage near the sea, made of recycled, sustainably sourced material, surrounded by wildflowers with a little room for me to write, draw, and move in. There would be a little porch where I would take in mornings slowly, and I would make friends with the wildlife nearby- the plants, trees, birds, and all manner of things, and I would never be alone.
It would be quiet, and I could see the stars at night. Here, I would dream a new way forward for our world. I would ideally be supported financially by my creative work, and learn how to make as much as I could or locally source objects. There would be lots of windchimes, and vegetable gardens, and fruit trees, and herb beds.
I, of course, can do these things at our current home - and I will. I also think there is power in speaking different dreams we have for our lives into being.
What kind of paradigm shift do you think is needed to survive the climate crisis? Is there anything you’re considering getting rid of in your life/introducing to make room for more time dreaming/doing nothing? (for me, it’s unsubscribing from marketing emails, spending less time on the phone, creating a morning ritual, and trusting in my ability to find work when I need to more readily). It’s also letting go of LinkedIn and other networking tools as background noise and using them as sparing tools.
I want your thoughts, and I hope this got your wheels turning! Because I don’t believe we can create the lives we dream of alone - they rely on our interdependence.
If I believe anything, change begins at the edges - from fringe movements, conversations between unlikely groups of people, small community gatherings, and communities like this. Edges, where two different microhabitats meet, have long been the most fertile places on Earth. An estuary is a great example, where the ocean meets the mouth of a river. I can’t wait to see all that grows from this little edge community.
xx
Camille
I, too, agree with you on the beach, it calls to me like a siren song.
"I think it’s okay to envision lives that suit us more fully than the ones we have right now while still exhibiting gratitude for all we have."
I agree with your statement above because it is the gratitude that perpetuates the lives we envision and dream of. Being in the feeling of gratitude begets more gratitude which then allows us to be in a high vibrational match with the life we are envisioning with our heart, mind, body, spirit, soul, and the Universe.
If we are not grateful for the present moment, then how can we be a receiver of abundance if we are shunning the present moment?
Hope you have a great vacation! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!
Beautiful art, beautiful words. And really great points throughout! Thank you for this great post, Camille. 😊