FLEXING THOSE ADULT 'UNSCHOOLING' MUSCLES!
I am doing SO MANY THINGS "all by myself" at the moment! One of these is building this new website, and the latest learning curve involved in that process is finding out how to integrate Printful's print-on-demand service into my online store. It's quite the challenge, for sure, but as you'll be able to see if you hit the 'Print Products' link above, I am getting there!

All of this 'standing on my own two feet' is putting into practise many of the 'unschooling' principles I've been advocating for many years, but from the perspective of an Unschooling individual, rather than an unschooling facilitator-parent.

LEARNER-DIRECTED, IN-CONTEXT EDUCATION
Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to learn a new skill when it's something you're either passionate about or NEED to learn for real-life, practical purposes (in my case, in this instance, for example - getting my work out there where people can see it, and becoming financially independent). Learning IN CONTEXT is a powerful experience, and as an adult, it's one that can undo years of erroneous self-limiting beliefs.

AUTONOMOUS LEARNING
I know I am far from the only one who struggles with learning by rote, or without any meaning or purpose in the context of my life. I include actual curiosity and genuine interest in the category or 'meaning and purpose', by the way. A good example is that although they had zero practical application for me as a child, I was always fascinated by - and therefore good at absorbing information about - things like history, poetry and biology; whereas advanced mathematics, physics and the like had me plunging into brain-freeze and the accompanying cycle of external pressure/criticism and resulting chronic self-doubt associated with 'not being good at' those things.

WHAT MOTIVATES US? WHY I CHOSE SANDY...
Here's a little tip I've picked up over the years when teaching oneself new skills which are likely to be less-than intuitive and really quite challenging. Include self-motivating elements which lift one's spirits whilst pushing through the frustrating bits. I knew ahead of time that whilst learning how to create products and add them to my new webshop I was likely to encounter some tech-related frustrations. So I have chosen to work with an image which reminds me of some of the qualities that will serve me well as I dive into the project: in this case, courage, perseverance and determination. I chose the face of my beloved Sandy the Shih Tzu, who taught me so much about these qualities, and whose dear, sweet, funny little face is also just a huge boost each and every time I see it. I literally cannot look at him without smiling! What better way to encourage myself onwards as I 'learn the ropes' of Printful? Seeing Sandy appearing on the products I want to share with the world is truly inspiring as I move forward through all that 'user-error' stuff!

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU...?
I'd love to hear about what motivates YOU when you need that push to go the extra mile. Let me know in the comments below - and give me a shout if there are particular print products you'd like to see Sandy (or any of my other work) made available on...

With love,

Jay

Whilst I've been going through the mill lately, sweet Raven has had my back every step of the way. Totally unfazed by my 'emotional vomiting', 'oversharing' and occasional deep dives into the abyss, Raven has been sending me lovely things to keep my spirits up and get the message across that 'I am enough', 'Everything is OK' and so forth. One of those 'things' has been a steady little stream of #memes, #thoughts and #inspirational #art from various sources. The image you see here is one such candle in the dark - a piece of art with motivational text from The Latest Kate, whose work I was not previously familiar with...

I went to her delightful feed on Instagram and was so impressed that I decided right away to #repost one of her artworks, something I am very judicious about - as creative in your own right, after all, your Insta followers came to see your content, not somebody else's content, am I right?

As I scrolled through, watching for resonance, this piece jumped right out at me. You also can see what I wrote when reposting it on my Instagram below:

As I mulled the reasons for my strong sense of connection to this particular post from Kate, which were multifaceted and abundantly obvious to me, I knew I wanted to reach out and share the photo below right after it, mostly to give some context to the people who started following me after it was originally posted a couple of years ago. Doing so also gave me a platform to express some of the strong feelings and insights that were flooding through me after sitting with Kate's beautiful imagery and the emotions it evoked. Here it is, with the words that accompanied it:

So the same day that I posted the two images and text above, I was reminded (by Raven again!) of how helpful it is to me to sing. We'd been talking about 'scream therapy' and I said that I can't do it - each to their own, but I just can't go out there and inflict my pain upon an unsuspecting natural population. I have tried, but no. Instead, I felt that I should sing - something that brings me great joy and healing. I really felt like singing 'Amazing Grace' all of a sudden! But the acoustics in our new little house are awful... SO I thought I'd combine a walk with a visit to the local church, where the acoustics were bound to be better. Off I pottered, in I went - and as I began singing, this is what I saw. Remind you of anything?! 😁 Obviously, this went straight up on my Instagram feed as soon as I got home!

Time and space are illusory.
All things are connected, inexorably,
And yet absolutely discreet.

Everything is fabulously bizarre
And yet utterly mundane -
Surreal and real simultaneously.

Madness is genius.
Hate is love.
Birth is death.
Below is above.

Everything is EVERYTHING,
As is nothing.
Nothing is everything! Yes!

And us?
We are links in a never-ending chain,
Rusting and beautiful,
Rattling, 
Dangling, 
Binding, 
Bewitching.
Holding ourselves caught,
Yearning for release.

A living work of Kintsukori,
Broken, oh yes, but NEVER BOWED.
I sing songs of wholeness, defiant, out loud.
I reassemble this vessel once more
With the unrefined gold of authentic expression
And pure, relentless wonder.

The universe watches
And all that remains
Are the choices we make,
The actions we take
And the love that we give
And receive.

Jay Taylor, 11th February 2019

#poetry #photography #life #death #birth#rebirth

As you can probably tell from the backdrop to this photo, my life is currently all a bit upside down and topsy turvy! I recently moved from my 15-acre sanctuary in the Peak District National Park to a 'normal' council house with a little garden, which is presently a total dump. I am still finding my feet (and living on plastic decorators' sheeting!), spending unanticipated time - and money! - working to get the place shipshape. Making it habitable is certainly developing and flexing my DIY muscles. Amongst many other projects needed to create an enjoyable space to live and work in, THAT RED WALLPAPER HAS TO GO!!!!!!! As yet, I've nowhere to paint paint, so instead I am doodling daily, when not building this website, networking, searching for jobs or stripping walls and floors.

As you can see, I have already made friends with the neighbours, some of whom have been so welcoming that they seem to think my home is also theirs! "Cats without Borders", I call them! This is sweet little Miss Molly, who is endlessly fascinated by the boxes and the climbing surfaces they provide. She also likes to sprinkle newly painted areas with cat hair, tread my bedding, and meow outside my window at 3a.m. in a quite persuasive effort to induct me into her informal 'cat sharing' scheme. The last couple of mornings, she's actually figured out how to force her way in through the slightly-open window - she has developed a special knack for busting it further open with her head! So clever! Timid, flighty, super-standoffish Rufus she ain't, haha!