A few nights ago I lay in bed; water in the creek rushing by outside, my babe asleep beside me after boobing to sleep, I could hear Scott’s voice as he read stories to the children by campfire, and I began to write by torchlight.
I wrote of my thoughts, for myself, and my words took me to a thought I’ve had many a time before; of removing myself from social media, and for an as yet unknown amount of time, discontinuing my blog.
This time my thoughts took me to a decision I could not turn back from. And so, I am for now, going to stop posting on my blog, and I am going to remove myself from facebook and instagram.
I have thoroughly appreciated the personal and homeschooling communities that have supported me and have been a source of friendship and comradery since beginning this journey. Social media has been a way for me to gather information and educate myself about subjects close to my heart, and I have truly loved seeing what all the lovely families I follow, or are friends with, do throughout their homeschooling or unschooling days. I have learnt much and been inspired by many.
Writing and photography are a joy to to me. I find both very cathartic and thoroughly enjoy the process of recording my family’s journey. I have also found writing my blog to be an extremely helpful way to organize myself for the process of homeschooling registration.
But at this time; with the presence and energy I bring to the online stage, I feel I need to step back and unplug. I need to be free of the commitments of maintaining my blog, facebook page, and instagram posts.
Now when I write I will be writing for myself. Even though I aim to portray myself in the most honest way I can it has always concerned me in the back of my mind that I may change the way I record things, even if only in the slightest way, because I want people to perceive me in a particular way.
Now when I take photos I will be taking them for myself. I will not need to have any concerns if they are good enough or appropriate for sharing online. And I will feel a release of not needing to capture ‘every’ special moment (seriously, every moment is special, so this is impossible!) and create a visual representation of our journey all the time.
Recording and journaling our unschooling life is a passion for me but certainly the value of my words and photos is not diminished if they are not shared or seen by anyone else.
I have met and maintained some lovely friendships with beautiful, likeminded people through sharing our homeschooling life online. It is hard to let go of something I have worked on for years now but at this point of our adventure, as we travel around Australia, I need to be present in the now (a state I have been striving to attain and maintain for several years), energetically available and grounded in the Earth as we tread her beautiful soils and become more intimate with our land and waters, and give my whole being to my gorgeous family.
Importantly, I have always had a concern about the healthfulness of sharing one’s life with such an enormous community. The nature of instantaneous sharing and receiving feedback within a community in which the people, on the whole, do not interact in the ‘real’ world or have not formed authentic relationships, can not to me be truly nourishing. There are of course wonderful positives of being able to share with such a wide audience and it’s a very useful tool to raise awareness. I hope that I have, even if it’s only in a miniscule amount, helped to raise awareness about the wonders of the things I feel most passionate about; homeschooling and natural parenting, homebirth, and our beautiful Earth.
I also believe that with the change in our culture from one of close knit family communities who help and support each other, to one in which parents can be and feel completely isolated, that online communities are a way to gain much needed support.
So, in ending, I wanted to say thank you to all of you who have come by and bothered to stick around and read any of my posts, I hope it was worthwhile!
We will be continuing to trundle northward and will be crossing over the border into QLD in the next week! (Very excited!!) I have started writing a journal (with pen and paper!), and have taken out my SLR camera again. I want to pursue photography in more depth and Anusha is very interested in doing that with me. I think at some point, perhaps when we return to Tas, I will continue with my blog, writing retrospectively of our life on the road, but at this point I can’t see social media enticing me again.
If any of you lovelies would like to get in touch, please drop me a line at dls.lonna@gmail.com it would be a pleasure to hear from you!
Blessings and sunshine to you all xx