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(Following is a “copy-paste guest post” from Dr. Jenny Lloyd Strovas, with her gracious permission. And if you love this content, be sure and join her Facebook group Getting Kids Outside & Learning About Nature – with Dr. Jenny to keep up with her latest workshops and other offerings. Participation in the group is free.)

Today was the day that everything shut down for us, exactly one year ago.

It was the day I started homeschooling my kids.

It was the day that everything I’d worked so hard to build in my business over the last 3 years started falling apart – and fall apart it did.

It was the beginning of a year where I was with my kids every single moment of every single day without EVER having a break. Turns out, you really start to value self care when you no longer have any time to yourself.

It was the day I started waking up at 4am every morning (again) just so I could get something done before the kids would wake up. But there’s never enough time and things are always falling through the cracks.

It was the year where I started dropping balls left and right because I just didn’t have the ability to keep them all in the air.

It was the year where we saw friends and family lose their financial security, their good health, and even their lives.

It’s been a very hard year.

But, it’s also the year where I got to help my son brainstorm and start his very own successful business.

It’s the year we learned how to make food and medicine from organic plants and even plants in our own backyard – pine salve, ginger beer, sourdough, juniper salve, lip balm, snakeweed tea, and more!

It’s the year that I learned my son wasn’t getting what he needed in school and that I needed to be more purposeful about leveraging the way his brain works to help him learn better – and to really love learning.

It’s the year Briar has always wanted – one with 24 hour access to mama and no day care – ha!

It’s the year that my kids have spent SO MUCH TIME OUTSIDE simply because they have that space in their calendars now. And we get to learn outside together on a daily basis instead of a special lesson one day a week.

It was the year I learned that I could teach kids about their local ecosystem from a distance (online) and that parents are TRULY the best conduit to getting kids outside and connected to nature.

And when I asked my kids what they think they’ll remember most about COVID 30 years from now, they said, “We got to spend so much time outside.”

Now, what I remember is going to be a little different – ha! But knowing that they are happy and healthy despite the craziness of the world is worth it all.

Let’s take today to celebrate everything we have in midst of this pandemic and maybe even because of it.

What are you going to celebrate today?

P.S. If this year wasn’t an opportunity to get your kids outside more often and learning, we’d love to help! Our eBook, Reuniting Child with Nature: Nature’s Guide to Happier and Healthier Kids” will give you everything you need to get started!

You can grab it here: https://www.naturemattersacademy.com/reunitingchildrenwithnature

(Following is a “copy-paste guest post” from Dr. Jenny Lloyd Strovas, with her gracious permission. Enjoy the post, and check out all these great publications she offers, for very reasonable prices. You’ll also find a registration link for her Back to Nature Bootcamp. And if you love this content, be sure and join her Facebook group Getting Kids Outside & Learning About Nature – with Dr. Jenny to keep up with her latest offerings. Participation in the group is free.)

Hello and WELCOME to the group!

We’re a community of parents who believe that nature is the KEY to the type of childhood ALL kids should have – one of creativity, exploration, discovery, and learning.

Who we are:
–We empower parents with the tools, skills, and mindset to create a nature-based childhood for their kids – to create a family nature legacy.
–We are parents who know that a STEM-based nature education will help our kids reach their potential and be successful in school and in life.
— We know that developing a connection to nature is personal, so we must learn how our kids best engage with nature.
–We know that spending quality time outside together as a family strengthens family bonds and will create the type of childhood that memories are made of.

Who we are NOT:
–We are not bean counters and don’t keep track of hours.
–We are not mud kitchens and fairy gardens.
–We are not a factory for nature activities. (We empower you to design your own and make them personal for your kids.)

If you’d like to get your kids outside more but have a hard time getting out the door, then our eBook can help!

It explains why our kids need to be outside regularly, how to get out there, where to go, what to bring, and even what to do!

Download “Reuniting Children with Nature: Nature’s Guide to Happier & Healthier Kids” here

If you already get outside regularly with your kids but need more ideas for activities, then our 60 Academic Nature Activities download would be a perfect fit for your family.

To promote your kids academics, we include 15 STEM Nature Challenges, 15 Nature Projects, 15 Nature Writing Prompts, and 15 Nature Crafts. We’ve even grouped them into categories like seeds, birds, beetles, flowers, etc.

If you want to get your kids outside and learning, download our 60 Academic Nature Activities here

But if you’re looking for transformation. If you’re wanting to create the type of childhood that all kids should have – one that’s full of creativity, exploration, discovery, and learning – then you should join our Back to Nature Bootcamp.

In our Back to Nature Bootcamp we give parents the tools and confidence to transform your kids’ childhood – to create a family nature legacy that will help them grow into happy, healthy, and successful adults.

To jumpstart your nature legacy, join our Back to Nature Bootcamp here

In my book, one suggestion I make to fellow eco activists is to face up to the scariest news about the environment, but not to an excess degree. If we totally shield ourselves from looking the eco/humanitarian crisis in the eye, we risk becoming complacent and dropping our efforts. But if we only focus on the crisis and never take in any news of solutions, we risk becoming overwhelmed and dropping our efforts.

Here is one article I consider to be necessary reading right now, for all humanitarian eco activists. (“The Great Climate Migration Has Begun”; by Abrahm Lustgarten in New York Times.)

“For most of human history, people have lived within a surprisingly narrow range of temperatures, in the places where the climate supported abundant food production. But as the planet warms, that band is suddenly shifting north. … the planet could see a greater temperature increase in the next 50 years than it did in the last 6,000 years combined. By 2070, the kind of extremely hot zones, like in the Sahara, that now cover less than 1 percent of the earth’s land surface could cover nearly a fifth of the land, potentially placing one of every three people alive outside the climate niche where humans have thrived for thousands of years. … The window for action is closing. The world can now expect that with every degree of temperature increase, roughly a billion people will be pushed outside the zone in which humans have lived for thousands of years. For a long time, the climate alarm has been sounded in terms of its economic toll, but now it can increasingly be counted in people harmed.”

The article starts out with an account of one Guatemalan farmer who is being pushed to leave his country in order to keep his family from starvation, after not having seen almost no rain for five years. He is only one of millions of people around the world who are facing such extreme hardship. We in the USA and elsewhere in the industrialized north have so far been artificially insulated from the worst impacts, but as drought-flood extremes in the Midwest farm belt show, it is happening here too.

And on this note, another article I consider to be essential reading right now is one that brings up the self-centeredness and white privilege of the mainstream “climate movement.”

(“The Unbearable Whiteness of Climate Anxiety”; by Sarah Jacquette Ray in Scientific American.)

“If people of color are more concerned about climate change than white people, why is the interest in climate anxiety so white? Is climate anxiety a form of white fragility or even racial anxiety? Put another way, is climate anxiety just code for white people wishing to hold onto their way of life or get “back to normal,” to the comforts of their privilege?

“The white response to climate change is literally suffocating to people of color. Climate anxiety can operate like white fragility, sucking up all the oxygen in the room and devoting resources toward appeasing the dominant group. As climate refugees are framed as a climate security threat, will the climate-anxious recognize their role in displacing people from around the globe? Will they be able to see their own fates tied to the fates of the dispossessed? Or will they hoard resources, limit the rights of the most affected and seek to save only their own, deluded that this xenophobic strategy will save them? How can we make sure that climate anxiety is harnessed for climate justice?”

When I saw the title of the Scientific American article, I didn’t get it at first. For me, “worry about climate change” makes me want to be sure we are growing food everywhere people live. And makes me want to promote social shift that will stop the USA from consuming a disproportionate share of the world’s resources.

And, makes me want to ensure that the USA makes room for climate refugees from other countries, since our policies and our consumption have accelerated the effects of climate change in countries in the tropics, Global South, Asia. There’s no point in “surviving” climate change, in a few selected temperate pockets of the world, if we lose our souls and go morally bankrupt in the process.

If we stop degrading land and wasting resources, we’ll have plenty to welcome everyone who wants or needs to come to the USA. Build a wall; lose our souls.

Also, if we act now, we might even be able to reverse some of the climate damage that’s threatening millions of people with starvation and violence, so they aren’t forced to give up their home and land. People don’t do that lightly. And I would say that given how our policies and our consumerist culture have contributed to the problem, we have a moral obligation to be part of the solution.

Please go read both of the above-mentioned articles; I think you will find them helpful in staying centered and grounded amid the clamor of climate naysayers and eco disparagers, so you can keep on showing up to do your chosen part of the work. Thanks for helping to build the momentum of the #GrassrootsGreenMobilization !

“The Life Cycle

“Each stage we go through has its time of fulfillment and recession, as do all living things. …

“When we can appreciate the full beauty of each stage of the cycle of life, from bud to blossom to disintegration, we feel more at home with our own earthly process. We can be inspired not to hold back the fullness of what we have to offer, knowing that our time to give of ourselves in this way will come to pass. At the same time, we can honor others, and the little processes that go on within the larger process of living our lives. …

“Every moment of every stage has its own particular beauty, and we can appreciate that, even as most of us tend to love the spectacular moment of full blossoming most of all. When we feel the wisdom contained in the budding, blossoming, and dissolution of a simple flower, we begin to feel it everywhere, in each moment that comes and goes, in each sunrise and sunset, in every hello and goodbye, as the very essence of the pulsating ebb and flow of existence.”

(Quoted from a beautiful piece via the DailyOM. To read this essay in its entirety, and to sign up for the email newsletter which brings Madisyn Taylor’s writings and other great stuff to your inbox on a steady basis, visit https://www.dailyom.com )

Someone on NextDoor awhile back was lamenting her high electric bill, so I replied with this comment, about how my bill stays around $11. (I also talk in more detail about this topic in my book and elsewhere on this blog. The following are just the main low-hanging fruit I’ve identified in my household electricity usage.)

My main thing making a difference is probably that I do not use air conditioning or heat. (I can’t handle artificial cold air or closed windows in warm weather; it feels unpleasant to me. And winters are mild enough here that I don’t need heat either – I’m just good at dressing in layers.)

I also use a clothesline rather than a clothes dryer. (I like the results better — sun-dried laundry smells very fresh etc. — and it is easier on my clothes as well as my wallet.)

And I rarely use hot water. (But even at times with a bunch of people in my house and the water heater in use daily, the bill was only still about $25 or $30, so I think it must be the fact that I don’t use a/c, heat, or clothes-dryer that are making the biggest difference.)

Any more questions ask away, I always love helping people save money and resources!!

I also commented that, for me, $100 or $200 a month (which is what many people pay for electricity) is a lot of books and online classes, as well as opportunities to support local food.

“The Hindu Vedas described four fundamental strategies for conducting your life.

“1. Toward happy circumstances, develop the attitude of friendliness. When you see happy people, introduce yourself and support them.

“2. Toward unhappy circumstances, develop the attitude of help and mercy. When someone is experiencing sadness, show kindness and compassion.

“3. Toward the good fortune of others, develop the attitude of gladness. When someone succeeds, admire him or her with sincere congratulations.

“4. Toward evil, develop an attitude of non-attachment. Meaning, do not return bad intentions with bad intentions. You may have to adopt a guardian heart to stop evildoers, but you never do it out of revenge.”

— Harry Palmer (from The Avatar® Path 2: Private Lessons, Chapter 7, Life Strategies, Lesson 59) (I highly recommend this book and all of Harry’s writings and video talks.)

The story of how my little 130k house turned into a million-dollar mansion started a couple months back, when I commented on a Facebook ad-post from some real-estate-related company. The post said, “See what we’d pay for your home if we made an offer tomorrow!”

I commented:

“My paid-for house near the beach is ‘officially’ worth 130k, but it’s a million-dollar palace to me!! Walking to the beach anytime, and living in a city I love: Priceless!!! #DaytonaProud — That said, if you want to pay me a million, I’ll take it, sleep in a van, and invest the money in helping my community.”

Fast-forward to nine weeks later (Facebook time stamps are handy!): Yesterday, an acquaintance of mine who happens to be a Realtor commented, “Jenny Nazak please call me if you are thinking of selling or want a value.”

To which I replied: “Like I said above. I mean that. 1 mil. There’s no way you or anyone would pay that for my little place. But my price to sell it is a mil, firm. I don’t care what any expert thinks the value is. <heart emoji>”

She replied, “Good motto. You wont believe how much houses are selling right now over asking.”

For sure, it is a seller’s market these days, here as in many other places outside the major metropolises. But 900k over the assessed value would be quite a stretch!

After making that comment yesterday, I got to thinking. Would I in fact be willing to let go of my house for a million dollars? And I started to feel not so sure I would!

For one thing, where would I live? Yes I said I’d live in a van and give the money to help my community. But I have realized that most of what my community needs isn’t money; it’s a sense of purpose and pride, and collective caring. There’s a nice little 4-unit apartment building for sale the next neighborhood over for 500k, and I can just about guarantee you that if I were to buy it and offer to hand it outright to someone who would agree to run it and find good tenants, I wouldn’t get any takers, at least not any serious or capable ones.

This is not a criticism of my community or the people in it. It’s just an example of how, if people don’t want to live in a place, money probably won’t be enough to keep them there. My offer would likely attract either layabouts who’d become a nuisance to the neighbors, or some absentee landlord who wouldn’t add much to the community.

OK then, what if I gave out 50k each to 20 people aspiring to start small businesses in the area; that’d surely make a difference in the community. And I could do that. However, even in my extremely limited experience with being a source of “patient capital,” I have learned that money can dissipate easily, with nothing good to show for it. I wouldn’t be so much concerned about getting a financial return, as I would be about making my money count in terms of creating enduring value in my community and the world. Still, even so, I’ve learned that handing out money is often not the answer.

What I would have zero desire to do is hoard that million. Just like I have no desire to hoard a hundred thousand.

And it also struck me that my house could easily allow me to generate a million dollars for my community (as well as build intergenerational wealth for my family), by me living here and attracting creative likeminded people to live here (which I am in the process of doing) and engage in activism and micro-enterprise.

It also occurred to me that if I live in a van, not only would I become dependent on others for a parking space; but also, I would not be in any position to offer anyone a financially secure place to live. With my house, I am very much in that position.

Of course, with a million, I could give 40 people 20k each toward purchasing a house or commercial building. Or give four people 200k each for same. That’s still leave me 200k to buy a house for myself.

Which led to the thought … But where? There is literally no other house I would rather live in than this one, where I have spent the past three years working hard to build soil and community. (And for four years before an inheritance enabled me to purchase this house, I was working hard to build soil and community as a tenant in the four-plex across the street.)

Even with the heated-up real-estate market, I could probably still find another house right here in my same neighborhood for 200k. But I doubt it’d be as well-made as this one I lucked into, and so nicely situated on a corner lot which makes it so ideally suited to my mission of creating a hybrid private/collective space. And with a freestanding garage that is currently basically a crafting shed but could easily transition to an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) or ACU (Accessory Commercial Unit) as those categories move into wider acceptance, which I think they are bound to do over time, with demographic shifts in society.

There may one day come a time when somethings or someones in my community would warrant my selling my house for a million dollars and living in a van. And I would be able to do it! My work tools, sentimental items, and other essential possessions are set up in my house to be able to be packed into a van in 2 hours or less. Some people have a bug-out bag; I do too, after a fashion, but I also have a bug-out room. I am actually a big fan of RV life, have done it before and may well do it again in the future, either out of choice or out of necessity (for example, climate-induced migration).

It is also possible that my highly well-situated beachside neighborhood will undergo incremental development, such that the natural direction of things is for single-family residences to make way for mini apartment buildings or even larger complexes. Given the pace of climate change, I don’t necessarily expect such investment push to reach my neighborhood, but it could, and I am prepared to cede my property for the greater good. I can imagine being offered 400k or maybe even 500k in such a scenario. Bizarrely, I noticed that I would be happier receiving that 400-500k, and having my place move up to a higher use, than selling my place right now to someone who’d be just a single-family homeowner like me. Even if it meant getting a million dollars right now!

Is that strange or what? What can I say; humans are funny. Behavioral economics is a fascinating subject by the way. And experts in that field might be able to offer some rational explanation for my seemingly irrational train-of-thought!

All of this is becoming quite the rambling post, for just a casual Facebook thread about house-scoopers! The topic turned out to be deep though. My main takeaways are:

1) Money is not always what it seems. Sometimes tangible things are worth a lot more to people and communities than makes sense on paper.

2) Even an activist like me, who has tended to take a form of “vow of poverty” approach to her finances, is allowed to live in a house without feeling guilty. (I’m working on that part. For sure, this house is not for one person. I strongly feel it’s meant for at least three permanent residents and a constant parade of guests.)

And

3) Weirdly, it can be very hard to find beneficial and sound places to park money. So hard, in fact, that I don’t necessarily want to have to deal with a million dollars.

One exception: If someone really did come to me with a million-dollar offer, I would definitely check with my siblings to see if they could use it. Helping my family if they needed it would be well worth living in a van for. They probably wouldn’t have need for it, though, so I’m pretty sure I know what their answer would be.

And so you have it. The story of how my sweet little 130k, mortgage-free, rock-solid block house by the ocean turned into a million-dollar mansion!

If this post sparks any thoughts about the values you assign to things in your life, I’d love to hear your thoughts! If someone offered you a million dollars for a thing you value greatly, would you take it? And if so, what would you do with the million?