Eight years and two months of working and living in big and vibrant cities far away from home
Ten months of planning and imagining a better, healthier, and happier place to live, work and raise a family
Three months and 17 days since my last blog post
One thing led to another, and finally, we are home.
I had no idea this four-letter word "home" could mean to and do more for us—much more than the physical house we built from scratch.
But that feeling of relief knowing that we could finally kick-start our permaculture dream.
The deep sense of gratitude after our daily morning and evening walks and finding nutritious, delicious and fresh bounty from nature.
The incredible sight of our dogs playing and running frantically through the tall grass.
My husband's soft kiss on my head in the early mornings and nuzzling in the warmth of his arms before drifting off to sleep.
A warm bed we can't get out of, a nature-scented living room, lots of open spaces. The sun greeting us with its warmth through the windows every morning.
A place of refuge. Our home in the middle of overgrown grass.
Simple, blissful moments like these, a fresh start, and a new meaning to mindful living. We are home.
The beginning of living the sweet, small-town life
We thought we would have the familiar nagging feeling that we might not quite fit in. Or it would take some time for us to reintegrate back into this new way of work and life from our home country.
But apart from the we-can't-sleep-in-new-place-on-the-first-night, all the days and nights that followed felt like it was just another part of our unfolding adventures.
We now wake up early (at five in the morning!) to the sounds of birds singing a melodious song on repeat.
It rains almost daily in the evenings, and frogs and toads are croaking loudly for hours on end. It gets pretty noisy, but we eventually grow to enjoy the froggy symphony.
Exercise, earthing (walking barefoot on the ground), and spending more time outdoors with our dogs have become daily, if not more often, routine.
On nights and days when we couldn't think of what to cook, relatives, neighbours, and friends would bring homegrown fresh produce or let us forage from their trees or gardens.
While doing our regular walks, we often discover that even our "unkempt" backyard hides tons of native trees, green and tasty edibles growing wild on their own.
Instead of eating while hunched over our computers during meal breaks, we now disconnect from work and recharge by soaking in all the natural beauty around us in utter quiet and sometimes collecting firewood. It seems like a great combination, don't you think?
Need help with carrying big boxes, bamboo poles for the fence, and gardening supplies. Worry not, the noisy and strange-looking hand tractor (or locally called "kuliglig") comes to the rescue. Hop on!
It's not all roses and sunshine, but…
This is it! Living a slower pace of life in the country is one of the most significant life changes we've ever made and a HUGE deal.
It happened in God's perfect timing.
It’s precisely what we've been missing from the "too much to do, too much to fit it, and there is just too little time in the day for anything else" kind of lifestyle we led in the last eight years. You can read about how it all started here.
Fortunately, we quickly adjusted to this change of pace and established exciting and refreshing work and life routines.
We obviously love every second of it, but I would be lying if I were to say I don't recall the convenience and the thrill of the city and anything that reminds us of it.
A month to date since we moved back, we [still] do remember the old life. I thought I would miss it, but I honestly don't relish it anymore.
Because this new lifestyle offers us more: room to breathe, space to expand our creativity, an opportunity to grow our food, raise animals and build a sustainable life the permaculture way.
That’s right; living in the countryside does us good and more. But that's another blog post in the making, so be sure to stay tuned!
#countrysideliving #finallyhome #homesweethome #permaculture #simpleliving #mindfulliving #livingsimply
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