Late Night Thoughts

One thing I have learned this past year is not to take things so personally.

When our FB page went from a few thousand ( I can’t recall the numbers but it was like 2-3 thousand) to over 45,000 I was completely bombarded and overwhelmed with comments both supportive and unsupportive. I felt like Captain Kangaroo when the ping pong balls fell on him (you might need to google that). I found myself defending every decision and every mistake I ever made.

When our lifestyle and beliefs are discussed some people quickly become defensive. They just can’t see how it could possibly work for us because it would never work for them. They often feel like they have to justify their decisIons to themselves. This is hard situation to remedy. Any comment after “I could never homebirth because____” or “I would never homeschool my children, because_____” is seen as further attack on them, even tho it was simply a matter of stating ones experiences.

But here’s the thing. I can choose homebirth and you can choose a hospital birth and we can still get along. Questions to learn from, rather than accusations to discount ones experiences are going to get a better response. I’ve no longer been taking it personally when people oppose unschooling or off grid life or Stay at home dads.. I don’t care when people call my cabin a shack or a shanty. You can call it whatever you want, it won’t change what it is to us.

Likewise, others cannot define who we are. We are all sovereign beings. If Bruce Jenner can identify as a woman, I can identify as a homesteader. 😉 All joking aside, we need to be confident in who we are. Be true to ourselves. Even if we haven’t fully developed who we strive to be. People who are always on the attack have their own issues to resolve. People who seek to force others to confirm, aren’t good people to be around. If your ideas have merit, they will be adopted voluntarily. If they have to be forced, well, there’s a good reason why. They probably aren’t good ideas to begin with.