Many good things came from our travels of course, so I don't want to sound like it's all doom and gloom around here! It is more the 'what could have been' that is hardest for us at the moment as we try and get into the swing of life back in the UK.
Travelling made us really appreciate the simple things in life and value them more than we ever had before. We have always tried to live consciously; buying from ethical, independent shops, eating local and organic produce etc... But when you have to live with so little, you very quickly learn to appreciate the important things - experiences, connection, taking life at a slower pace, to name a few.
Spending most of our time outdoors, being active and riding our bikes, all that wonderful Vitamin D and the abundance that is Mother Earth, won over anything in the material world! Water and electricity were not an everyday luxury for us. We had a solar panel on the van, which powered our leisure battery and the water tank needed to to be filled regularly, so we learned to be frugal with both as we couldn't always find electric hook ups (and didn't want to) and there were many times when we had to prioritise water to drink and wash dishes with over washing ourselves! Eek!
'Simple living' is quite a hot topic at the moment, and rightly so! It's time for us all to look at how we live and how it is impacting on this earth of ours. The earth we are responsible for, not just in the present, but for our children, their children and so on... There are so many 'more is more' attitudes out there. It is quite sickening to witness this never-ending greed and hunger for more of everything. What ever happened to 'just enough' and being contented with what you do have?
Anyway, I hope you don't mind my honesty. It feels good to write some of this down and think about how we can be better humans in this rather broken world.
I'll be sharing more about our unschooling journey here too, with some recommended reading for anyone curious.
Thanks for reading.