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

From mountaintop trees to crashing waves in the sea, we are listening. Under star bright canopies, between golden sunlight rays, we are listening. Through cracks in the pavement where wildflowers grow, while studying colored lines of the brightest butterfly wings, we are listening. By fireside, through desert domes, through fields of sage and wild oaks, we are listening. With eyes open, eager and wide, we crane our necks towards the sky, to observe, to absorb, and to listen.

Luna is our great teacher in this art, this magical act of listening. She hears with ease the messages from all these beautiful, voiceless things. She knows the words of her brother, the wind, dances to the voice of her sister, the leaves. Recognizing the harmony between all living things, she follows in the path of her father, sweet sun, and her mother, bright moon. She knows when to rise, when to fall, when to laugh and when to rest. She takes in every breath as an instrument for love, breathes in all the wisdom given freely from the earth, and breathes out into the world her part of the whole. She knows it all through listening.

The voice she hears and teaches us to hear, is one of great intuition. It is the language spoken through the patterns in the natural world, the patterns weaved within us all. With Luna by our side, we remember to appreciate and rely on this sacred gift, and we learn to listen. The answers are there, laid around us and buried in the earth, hidden in the depths of the sky, and painted across our hearts. We need only to listen. So we move into forests, we move into seas, we study the flowers, and we learn how to be. In silence, in stillness, in gratitude, and by following our child's path, we learn to hear the voice in all the beautiful, voiceless things. And forever, we are listening.

This entry is part of the Sakura Bloom Sling Diaries. We are wearing Luna in a simple silk sling in Sandstone. Thank you so much for following along! Love & hugs.

Freshly Picked // Review & Giveaway!

It had been just a few months of my using Instagram, when I found out I was pregnant. I remember being so amazed when I discovered this world of moms I never knew existed, who were united on this platform through their creative ideas, amazingly crafty endeavors and business ideas. Susan Peterson, the founder of Freshly Picked, a moccasin company for kids, was one of the first entrepreneurs I had the pleasure of encountering. When I landed on her page I immediately was a fan of her product, her approach, and of course, imagined my little unborn someday running around in her adorably cute shoes. Fast forward over a year later and here we are this week, growing our own little business lives through Instagram and watching our Little Moon getting beyond excited for her very first pair of moccs! And what makes it even more special, is that we've had the total honor of collaborating with Susan and the incredibly kind folks over at Freshly Picked in order to do a review and a giveaway for their amazing shoes!

Luna will be nine months old in just a few short weeks and she has started crawling around like crazy and pulling herself up on everything possible. We are all having so much fun with this stage of her life and discovery as a new human being, and also realized it was time to get her her first pair of shoes, as she's been a barefoot kid up until now! Since I've been dreaming of these moccasins for quite some time, you can imagine my excitement when they first arrived. Perfectly purple, true to size, soft and supple, handcrafted with love, just like we'd always envisioned! And when we showed them to Luna, she was ecstatic! First, of course, putting them in her mouth, the usual greeting for all new things these days. Then, she watched in amazement as we put them on her, smiling and looking from them to us and back again. The shoes slipped on perfectly and with ease, with great help from a nicely hidden elastic band around the ankle, which is super stretchy and strong. Luna was thrilled to see herself in her new shoes and stand and kick in them. Even with there being a little room for her to grow into this pair, they stayed on super snug, even with all her acrobatic moves!

One of my favorite aspects about the design of Freshly Picked moccasins, is that the same pattern is used for both shoes, so your child's feet get to mold the sole and create which side will be the left and right. The leather is so nice and soft, even after just two times of wearing the moccs, they were starting to form to her feet so comfortably. We really couldn't be happier with these shoes, with the amazing kindness and generosity from the makers, and we are SO EXCITED that we get to give a pair away to one of YOU! If you'd like to enter to win a pair for your own little one, in your choice of color and size, please leave a comment below and let us know! You can also put additional entries into the giveaway by following us and the directions on Intsagram! Thank you as always for letting us share, for being a part of this community we love so much, and to Freshly Picked for teaming up with us. We love you!

Big hugs,

Ashley, Oscar, Luna & Francois 

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

I was a kindergarten dropout. For two weeks, I came home every day after school and cried to my parents about not wanting to go back. They drilled me about what was going on and if I was being bullied, or if there was some other reason for my being so upset over school. Nothing could be concluded. I would simply cry and say I didn't like it. I'm so grateful for parents who listened to their children and for a mom who wouldn't force things if they didn't feel comfortable, and who also made incredible sacrifices to take me out of school at that time and teach me herself at home. For the next twelve years, we battled constantly with my educational process. Although I was blessed to spend the majority of my years homeschooling and being outdoors, where I develop and learn best, I was never able to fully embrace that I had to participate in school. By sixth grade, I was convincing my parents to let me do seventh and eighth grade in one year, so that I could graduate from high school early. For the few years I went to an actual school, I ditched class whenever possible and spent my time journaling and reading personal books behind my textbooks, struggling to get passing grades and causing a world of stress for my parents, teachers and myself. I wasn't trying to rebel, I just felt so strongly towards this feeling of constriction and standardization that came with the educational process, and I simply wanted to be away from it.

However my feelings were towards school and education, my feelings towards learning were the exact opposite. I love and have always loved learning, with a passion! It excites me to no end to make new discoveries, expand my vocabulary, or learn the history of an ancient civilization. I'm fascinated by art, biology, anatomy, quantum physics, and enthralled with the whole process of assimilating information. Because of my equal love for learning and dissatisfaction with schooling, I spent many years feeling passionate about the need for education reform. Even after promising never to go to school after my required years were complete, I found myself enrolled at city college in my mid-twenties, with the hopes of getting a degree in education, so that I could help kids like myself find their place within the schooling system. It took two and half semesters before I dropped out and concluded that the system was broken beyond what I thought repairable, and that my true desire was to create an entirely new paradigm for learning. When I became a mother, I realized this was my greatest opportunity for creating that kind of shift. I might not be able to construct a brand new system of education for the entire world, but I can create one for Luna, and nothing is more satisfying or influential than that.

So regarding education, here is your Dad's and my promise to you, sweet little moon. We will make the whole world our classroom and this life we live together will be our beautiful subject. There will be laughter and dancing and seeking knowledge with the highest intent for good. We will learn math while plotting garden beds and science will take place while camping under the stars, music and singing around the nighttime fire. History lessons will come from stories passed down by our elders and we will learn geography as we map-out our great adventures. We will learn Spanish while traveling Mexico and study the art of cultures as we experience them. There are lessons under every rock, knowledge hidden within every tree, and we will seek to fill our lives with the richness of it all! We will make learning exciting and inspiring and most of all, we will learn with you. When challenges arise, we will try something new. We will dig deeper, we will soar higher. We will let you lead the way. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to learn anew, to see the world for the first time again. It is the greatest blessing to be on this journey of learning with you! 

With love from our deepest parts,

Mom & Dad

This post was part of the Sakura Bloom Sling Diaries. We're wearing Luna in the simple linen in lavender. Thank you to my beloved for taking and editing all these photos for us! It was a wonderful day exploring Old Town in San Diego together. And thank you to everyone for following along! Lots of love and hugs from our family to yours.