Many Roads to Co-Housing

After our children grew up and left the house, we began downsizing in preparation to move to a much smaller house in the country.

We emptied all the upstairs bedrooms of our four bedroom, 2800 square foot house.  We used only one of the bathrooms.

Since I had already stopped teaching music lessons, our living room was no longer in use.  We ate in the kitchen, not the dining room.

I condensed my office full of file cabinets and teaching materials into my computer and a table full of books.  These fit easily into the master bedroom.  My husband used a small cubicle-style desk for his computer.  As usual, around us on every available wall space, were shelves of books.

When he measured how much space we were living in, it came to 650 square feet, including master bedroom, kitchen and bathroom.

When we sold our house, we were much more prepared to move out.

The amount of space available showed me that there was plenty of room for more people to live there.  After all, five of our seven children had lived there with us.

Why not rethink the space for co-housing?

Another example comes to mind.   When our second daughter was in elementary school, one of her friends lived in a house with three families.  These included two grandparents, an uncle, aunt and their child, my daughter’s friend, her brother and their single mother.  It was a large two-story with a pool in an affluent neighborhood.

A third example comes to mind.  I met a woman who needed to care for her aging mother.  She converted a three bedroom house according to city code into a three-person nursing home.  Later, she converted a larger house to accommodate six residents in a family setting.

My husband’s aunt and her husband along with an uncle and his wife shared a two-bedroom apartment after World War II.  They still remember their shared grocery list.

A professional friend lives with four other singles in a six bedroom home in NYC.  The sixth bedroom is their common area.

A married couple rent two rooms from a man with a three-bedroom home in a suburban setting.

When I think about the abundant resources provided by the possibilities offered by co-housing, I am amazed.

Child care, cooking, yard and garden.  All these responsibilities are eased with different aspects of co-housing, utilizing the talents and desires most effectively of the folks who live there.

It is important to be clear about the guidelines and to have a calm way of resolving any discomforts.  Move from strained resources into shared abundance.  Find out who is best suited for the different roles now provided.  Work out the difficulties and the newness.  Give more.  Share more.  Add to the harmony in the neighborhood.  Let it spread.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Inspiring People

I keep meeting inspiring people.

When I recently visited a cousin in the country in Texas, some of her neighbors dropped by.  The husband had recovered from a strike some time before and still dealt with some of the physical effects.  He had the most positive, upbeat, happy attitude.  He enjoyed visiting with my husband about the possibility of sending his son to our camp some time in the future.

In Missouri, as we were leaving a local Mexican restaurant,, a woman and her husband, who was on crutches, were leaving also.  My husband asked the man if he had lost his leg in Viet Nam.  the man said it had been the result of a bacterial infection and that he counted himself fortunate, most fortunate.

We spoke with a woman who owns a lettering shop and works with troubled teens and horses.  She is working on a grant to expand her facilities for them.

While waiting for my husband, I started to close the door of our truck in order to make room for another man in the parking lot of the hardware store.

He asked me about the camp sign on our truck.  He expressed agreement about providing boys with experiences in nature.  Then he shared his experiences in business, raising kids, the importance of dressing well, manners, and the fact that he had fostered a large number of children and put them through college.  Although he said he was lucky, I told him it sounded as though he made his own luck by being a giver.

I am so privileged to keep meeting inspiring people.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Measurements

Dollars and good will.

Which currency do you trade in?

Which do you have more of?

Which do you use most generously?

How can you increase your supply?

Use it.

Invest in it.

Whatever you use will multiply and return to you many times over.

Which one has the most possibilities?

That is where you should spend your time and effort.

You have the ability to live generously.

Do so.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Old impressions give way

This old impression of who I am 

is giving way to the person I want to be.

I replace the old impression consistently.

It sets up a new vocabulary of attraction immediately.

The old words to the old songs

become a distant discordant melody.

the new world I am creating with new words and songs

surrounds, uplifts, embraces me repeatedly.

Old pains are released, I feel my freedom tingling.

Exhort, affirm and celebrate my entrance into the Kingdom.

I do not have to fix the old or anything from the past.

Once I no linger live there, there is no receiving address.

My ever-growing recognition of my freedom permeates

my mind, then body, all surroundings, people, places, things.

I live anew in a new world.  I see through different eyes.

I understand through different thoughts.  I’m valuable and prized.

If you see me in my new form, you are a friend indeed.

You, too, have walked a growing path, you, too, have sensed the needs.

A few are called, yet more and more reach out the this new message.

That we are One.  With new Resources, we’ll see what life now presages.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Young Masters

Last night, I attended an art exhibit of “Young Masters” sponsored by the Dallas Museum of Art.  http://www.dma.org/art/exhibitions/young-masters-2014

 My husband, a high school engineering teacher, was invited by one of his students who is one of the artists chosen to exhibit.

I was astounded at the creativity and technique and imagination and expression of the work of fifty high school age artists.

I was deeply moved by the emotion and passion of their work.

There was painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, mixed media.  Each work had a thoughtful individual artist statement.

There is no limit to the individuality in all of us, as shown by these fifty young artists.

Their talents have been developed by their individual desires bringing them into contact with wonderful teachers, support from parents providing them with materials and time and lessons.

Let there be more art!

Let us welcome the creativity and individuality of all of us, young and old, in all the ways we can possibly express ourselves.

Make art!

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Persuasion vs. Coercion

The purpose of the media all the way back to the first handwritten and copied treatises has been to inform and to persuade.

Coercion has been widely practiced by physical and economic force all through history.

Today, we see the media deviating substantially from its intended purpose.

It is now being used to coerce.

When the FCC or other directed bodies find their original and true intended way once again, and separate the purpose of the media from its current use, we will be able to experience responsible journalism and advertising.

I expect this to happen, because the current situation actually performs no service.

A tool of coercion has no place in any society.

Let America move forward to serve all of its people along its originally intended lines.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage
www.InspiredPractices.com

The Growing Awareness

I am so appreciative of the growing awareness of issues which join all of us together.

Perhaps it has taken all the developments of technology and communication to help build this.

Perhaps it has taken all the local injustices together to correct the bigger misconceptions of how we are all related.

I am seeing a desire for more compassion everywhere I go.

There isn’t a topic that is not devoted to spreading the power of compassion for all our peoples in many countries, caring for the earth and celebrating the businesses that manage to run successfully while doing this, too.

The connections are all there.

It is we who are beginning to see them.

All this power of connection is presenting a whole new way of relating to one another.

It is a principle of good relationship, good stewardship which is replacing greed.

Defining the balance between efficiency and resilience is an embracing new concept.

The innovations in money systems as practiced by local currencies, BitCoin and by Complementary Currency Circuits (C3) in several countries, demonstrates the power and freedom and prosperity available on small and large scales.

The freedom and compassion of individuals is expanding to include everyone on earth.

The good feeling and desire for good for everyone is supported by every system known on earth and is being implemented in innovative and practical ways.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com