As I read this it's seven thirty in the morning, I hold my son on my lap while he does the dance of waking up, one that started half an hour ago, and involves a lot of carrying and rocking to and fro. I'm at the computer because I've been taken out of bed too early and I need something to keep me busy or else I'll want to go back to bed. So I take the chance to check my emails, download the next batch of documents I have in store for translation and maybe, if my hands are free, do some little reviewing of whatever it is that I have written recently.
This is what my day looks like for the most part: I work while playing to my son while talking to my husband while minding a sick cat while enertaining family or friends at home while sweeping and listening to music, because it's all part of the same dance, which you have so joyfully described.
Success is this for me: I see my son growing in front of my eyes every second of the day, I have one endless ongoing conversation with my husband throughout the dat about everything and nothing, I receive visitors and give them coffee and cookies if I can afford them that week, I make my living at home and decide on my own schedule, and yet my family and I lack nothing.
I wish more and more people understood that they are their own bosses, whether or not they work freelance.
Great piece Erika :)
Thank you very much. I can envision myself in your living space and eating a cookie and let this life pass through me. Having a young child is very time consuming. I can very well remember those waking hours and doing things which I felt were boring to me as I had to let go of my usual routines. It impresses me that you seem to be able to combine all those things.
Seeing children grow up is a fascinating matter. My son is 14 and becomes more of a stranger to me now. On the other hand, there is this familiarity which cannot be reached with other humans. How old is your son?
Yes, being and feeling that one is ones own boss is priceless. From what I think this is easy with enough money in the bank and security in the back. It's not easy when circumstances are neither safe nor easy. But then the quality of independence comes to full fruition, doesn't it? Only, when the fine line between being independent touches what is called poverty on the brink of starvation and other life threats this inner independence gets destroyed very often.
I wish you good waking hours.
I'd love to have you over for coffee (my specialty). My boy turned two in November, he spends most of the day either playing with cars or playing in the car or pointing at cars in the street.
Independence is a tricky concept. No one really is, like Americans say, an island upon himself. Humans thrived because we could depend on each other. I'd like to see that trust in fellow humans grow again. Maybe where you are from this is not a problem, but here in the town where I live you cannot plant flowers on the front of your house because they will be stolen over night. We do depend on each other to be whole. I think one can speak of independence when ideas and decisions are implied. Maybe this is the concept of being an adult?
I fully acknowledge that we all are dependent on each other. This actually is mental independence as it realizes this matter of fact. Once you know things depend on each other, you can reach inner freedom. As it breaks the illusion of having to carry life all on ones own shoulders. If one thinks that he on one side must control others constantly and on the other side that he doesn't want to owe anything to anyone, this creates the biggest mental chains as the efforts in this field of tension are way too big.
To let go of control and still care speaks of the trust you mentioned.