Alternatives

I've been fascinated by alternative shelters for decades. When I was in high school I came across the book Getting a Roof Over Your Head: affordable housing alternatives in my Uncle Jim's vast collection of books. Kindly Uncle Jim gave me this mind-altering treasure that very day. It is one of the few books remaining in my shrinking collection. This book opened my mind to the possibility of doing things differently. Not just in building a home. Also taking an alternate path to journey through life. Building a home in this way (different than most) takes commitment and an alternative outlook on life and how it is lived. Our society is often so overpowering that one can loose site of her own values. Wants translate into needs in our culture. We plant this seed in our children early and cultivate it in our homes. I am no stranger to this way of thinking, I've lived it off and on. I grew up in suburban America in the seventies, after all. These days I'm safely off that band wagon. Presently on foot (or in that darn van) trudging my own interesting path.

I memorized the homes in that treasured book when I was a girl. The stories behind the homes. The people who dreamed them up and made them happen, often with their own hands. It's a skill making your dreams reality. It takes perseverance, drive and believing in yourself. Often you have to step outside of the expected in order to accomplish great things. And when things are not going as you planned or hoped, you have to push your way through it or be flexible and patient and quiet enough to discover what is needed in that moment. Our choice to homeschool is a little like building an alternative shelter. Some days I wonder how so many families manage this homeschool world. I have found it isolating and lonely at time. I crave the community I imagined yet have not made enough of an effort to join the community, not seen an easy way into it. I think I can, I think I can...

Check out this alternative shelter:

Eliphante in Arizona

Eliphante