Making A Life: Tiny homes make TIME

In the busyness of the past few months with our business, I've lost the time I had been spending on creating with my hands. As a practice that grounds me, making something with our hands is a way to immerse ourselves in what is true, what is real, a connection to our heart and soul that comes out through our fingers.

It could be a new recipe, casting on a woolly jumper, crocheting a blanket for a new baby, writing a poem with pen and paper (or even better quill and ink!), something that connects us to our deeper selves. Something that grounds us, makes us come alive, connects us to our own hearts and to our community, and also to the natural world around us.

I find the practice of making a key component in mental health....and I kind of wish they really understood this in schools. That the things our ancestors did as a means of survival, wasn't just to keep food on their table and a roof over their heads, but to interact fully with life, to validate their identity, to find peace through pain, grief, trial and sorrow. 

Making something REAL, something you can look at or hold in your hands is a gift to yourself! It doesn't matter if it's a piece of crap when you're done, the process is important and edifying. Anything new is going to be hard and scary, especially in this day and age of instagram perfect plating up, and swoon worthy home interiors. 

I have delved into many craft practices, sold some of my work, and given away just as many (tip from me: give your makes because you want to, not because you need any accolades from the recipient...many people just don't get the whole handmade gift thing and you may find it at a local thrift store later ...*True story!)

In Making A Life by Melanie Falick, there's a quote by Peter Korn who wrote the book 'Why we make things and why it matters': "There's a certain type of emotional or spiritual hunger we have that isn't answered by anything but making physical objects."

Celebrating life by creating beauty in our daily lives is integral to maintaining joy.

For many of our clients, part of the move to a tiny home lifestyle is for exactly this reason.

Connection to place, connection to themselves, connection to the wider world. 

And TIME and space to do just that. To make a mess, to make it poorly, to make something new to them, to make a LIFE.

I would love to hear how you are thriving in your world, and if the practice of working with your hands has helped you in any way!

Big love

Shani 

xxx