Thoughts on Living a Process Oriented Life

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I am the type of person who gets really inspired by something and then tries it out. And I don't just dabble, I go balls to the wall. Whether its my Smaller Sarah Year, the paint job in my entry way or my radical homemaking manifesto, I give the idea my full attention and energy. I do this so that I can assess whether or not its the right path for me. Does it make my life better? Is it sustainable? How does it shift over the long term? What changes can I make to the original plan so that it better suits my life with kids? These questions can only be answered if I commit as fully as I can to the goal.

Yesterday's Instagram of my raised bed.

My radical homemaking journey has already been really rewarding. The little changes I've made to our household like gardening vegetables in a raised bed, composting, etc, have revealed to me what our family can live without and also what our family needs to have in place. The larger changes towards self reliance and greener living have been slower than I had hoped, but they have also served to focus my energies and fine tune my patience.

Even though I like to commit 100 percent, change is still a process. I can only do a little bit at a time. And I cannot do everything at once. I cannot possibly maintain a four-day-a-week exercise schedule, plan and prepare all raw meals (as I would like to), tend to my garden, take care of two small children, make art, write a book, volunteer at my son's school, blog, take photos, meet freelance writing deadlines, edit photos, stay married and on and on and on. And the truth is I don't do all of those things. I can barely get to half of those things during the course of my week. The goals I hold for my home and for myself must ebb and flow if they are to be accomplished with any kind of efficacy and quality.

So when I say, I'm on the radical homemaking path or that I'm on a weight loss journey, I mean just that: I'm in process. And really, aren't we all in process? When will I arrive at center? I don't care when that occurs. In fact, I hope that it never happens. I hope that I am always tending the garden of my soul, searching for answers, loving the journey and sharing snapshots along the path.

Art by the talented Phoebe Wahl