Our current normal is, well, overall not good. Don't try to deny it.

Herein, normal will be defined as upholding the status quo. as that is what the majority of us do. Were trained to do. Unfortunately, this upholding of the current status quo is hurting us, destroying us even.

Normal is always wearing shoes because you are surrounded by concrete, and/or you poison your yard in a misguided attempt to keep it maintained. (Main-tamed?) All of which are unhealthy.

Normal is going to work everyday to a job you may or may not enjoy to build someone else's empire, one which doesn't even have a chance of benefiting you, except to keep you surviving just enough to keep doing their work.

Normal is sending your kids to school, praying that they are strong enough to survive the system that tamed and destroyed you, even though you know that the system was specifically engineered to break people into biddable slaves for the empire.

... because you aren't allowed to know that getting good dirt on your feet is measurably good for you, or that the "weeds" you are killing are both food and medicine, because then you wouldn’t buy their over-produced over-processed “food” or their drugs…

...because you must make enough money to have food, clothes, and a home, which isn't easy when the empire only begrudgingly allows you to have barely enough of anything, including the money, indefinitely indentured to them forever, as they control both your wages and the prices of things you must buy...

...because you don't  know how to facilitate a real education for them, you were broken and raised in their worker training schools...

Normal is never even considering that there might be a different way, or that any different way could be safe, simple, easy, accessible, and better.

Normal villainizes different, because different could disrupt the empire.

Normal is dehumanizing, because it makes us see other individual humans and groups as resources or obstacles, as non-people.

Time for a new normal.

Technically, normal is whatever the majority are doing. Theoretically, we can change it by changing the prevailing paradigms of the majority of people's beliefs and understandings of the world, and of people, and of relationships between and among everything.

It's time to create and build a regenerative, sustainable, and humane new normal. One that benefits all people and fosters healthy relationships between people and the rest of existence. For everyone, of course, but it starts small: in our individual lives, families, homes, and communities. Standard grassroots movement. 

My new normal looks like...

For me, normal looks like keeping my kids out of compulsory school to protect them from coercive social conditioning that was created to break human children into resources- extracted from their families, exploited for their labor to produce wealth for the empire until they can no longer meet quota, utterly expendable due to the never ending supply of new workers being schooled.... and to protect them from being indoctrinated with the beliefs of consumerism, materialism, and hierarchical relationships. 

For me, normal looks like taking purposeful pleasure in the flowers at the library, the snake at the garden center, and the dolphins at the beach... the wind in the trees, my children playing in the yard, and the bubbles the neighbors are playing with as they float over my fence... snuggling with my husband, and our children, and loving them all more than anything ever.

For me, normal looks like as  natural as possible birth, cosleeping, baby wearing, long-term breastfeeding... herbalism, gardening, and earthing... working around my hormone cycle and natural circadian rhythms... 

For me, normal looks like facilitating an education in costume design and construction for my D&D obsessed passionate 13 year old and hunting Lego minifigures for my 10 year old. 

For me, normal looks like amazement at the truly awesome power of the human mind to learn as my children learn to read on their own and discover math concepts as if they were new, without instruction, coercion, or suffering, without teachers, curricula, or worksheets.

And you?

What are you doing this year/month/week/day to grow your part of the new normal? Growing a garden? Choosing time with your children over work? Rescheduling your routine to meet your unique circadian rhythms and hormone cycles? 

If your big change this season is to explore educating your children outside of the compulsory school systems, researching how children actually learn, and/or deschooling your own beliefs about children and relationships and education so you don't bring the evils of school into your own home, I am here to support you.

Coming soon: asynchronous 1:1 support, some courses, possibly a membership community.... scroll down to the footer to follow me on socials so you don't miss the releases!