The Sling Diaries, Vol. IV // Everything Shines: Culture

Hello and happy Thursday! I'm so excited to announce that I was chosen to participate in volume IV of Sakura Bloom's The Sling Diaries: Everything Shines. For the next six months, CJeanPhotography will be photo-documenting our babywearing adventures and I will be writing on a monthly assigned theme, all of which will be posted here on our blog! You can also follow my posts and all the other mamas and papas participating here, and read my application entry here. Make it a great day and I hope you enjoy my first post!

Love and hugs,

Ashley

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I have been fascinated by the subject of culture since I was a child. My parents are very strong in their Christian faith and during my youth I was encouraged to involve myself in a variety of work that helped to serve others and to spread the message of love and hope around the world. Before I reached eighteen years of age, I had experienced a taste of life from over a dozen countries, each distinguished by their own unique cultural beauty, practices, and beliefs. From South Africa to Panama, Thailand to Honduras, each place I went brought me closer to the realization that traveling was my teacher. School quickly became a rite of passage to get through, and I understood that what was really valuable for my education was to learn as much as possible from the world around me, expanding my knowledge and understanding of life through the inviting of different cultures and ideas in. Witnessing such powerfully radical differences between people groups across the planet brought me to the personal conclusion that no one worldview or way of expression can possibly work for everyone, and that if peace and harmony are to rule this planet, we must be able to unite the common threads that tie us together as a whole.

With all the influence of my upbringing it makes sense to me that I would manifest a romantic relationship with someone from another country, so I really shouldn't be surprised that Luna's dad is from Mexico and was only living in the US for two years when we met, but the idea still makes me giddy every day! Oscar has been the most amazing person to create life with and I am so grateful for his perspective and for the experience of starting a family with him. I'm also grateful for what it means for us that he is not from this country. (Going beyond the obvious language differences between our families and all the other fun stuff that comes when cultures cross!) We have explored this idea a lot together and deeply believe that humanity is evolving in a way where there is hope to see borders disappear and countries merge, sharing space on earth in respect, peace and harmony. I know some may say this idea seems farfetched, especially when you watch the news and see the types of conflicts there are between territories and land. But when I look at my little family that has crossed cultural barriers so beautifully, I see a small representation of what the future could hold, and I am encouraged by the lessons I learned through my travels as a child.

From the most remote village in Namibia, to the bustling city streets of London, I discovered the common thread tying us all together as humanity is the desire to experience love. To know and to be love, to give and to receive love. And if we could all focus our attention on magnifying that common denominator of love, we truly believe the world could become a different, better place. So instead of raising Luna as Mexican, American, Christian, or Catholic, we are choosing to bring her up in the culture of Love. A culture that redefines culture, that operates on the principles of acceptance and understanding, that gathers tradition from all walks of life and honors the beauty of each. A culture always working towards a united people and planet, richly flowing in the unique expression of every individual thread of color, weaving together a new collective tapestry of the human race.

I'm wearing a Sakura Bloom simple linen sling in Lavender. All photos by CJeanPhotography.