Hello : ) 

I’m Cynthia and it’s a pleasure to connect with you, even though it’s through a screen.

When I am feeling my best self and ‘in the present’, I feel deeply connected to the earth. I love nature and am most definitely an over thinker.  This has led me to question and object to a lot.  The consumerism during Christmas time and the choice between plastic and pine cut trees really got to me.  Australia’s plant life is so much more diverse that what’s in a catalogue.  The world doesn’t need tiny bits of plastic trees in landfill or the oceans.  I wanted to downsize gifts and upsize meaning.  I thought it best to swap out the traditional Christmas tree for a tiny Aussie Christmas Tree – a tube stock from a local indigenous community nursery.  This remained just a thought and then I ended up with a habitat garden instead. 

Sometimes when I find myself stuck in the cycle of overthinking, nature grounds me.  Barefoot on the grass or sand. Community planting events.  Meandering through slow nature walks.  Watching the roos, dragonflies, butterflies and the ants.  This all slows me down.  Then I wonder why I bother going so fast. I wonder why I feel the need and the urgency to go faster than stationary. 

Creativity is in my genes and while I’m not perfect at it, creating can also bring me into the present moment.  

I don’t always live in the present moment though.  When I look at spaces, when I look at things in the shop, when I look at litter on the floor it makes me think back to its past and into its future.  What was life like before?  Where did this ‘thing’ come from?  Where will it end up?  What will its impact be?

Then I think about me.  How do I want to exist in the world?  What do I want my impact to be?  I have many thoughts about this.  For now, I know that I am living in south eastern Melbourne, Australia – on the Melbourne sandbelt to be exact.  It is a land that was managed so incredibly well by the First People of the Kulin Nation.  Nature holds me and the least I can do is to receive its gifts with grace and do whatever I can to connect with it and nurture it. 

All in the slowness of time.  

Stay warmly blessed.

: ) Cynthia.