I
am a natural rebel and adore all ways of thinking
about and dissecting this great thing called
life, constantly on the lookout for new information,
radical and inspired ways of taking charge
of myself, my health, my world. Despite much
formal education, I knew absolutely nothing
about the "real world" until I became
a mother, which was and still is the most
earth shattering, mind expansive turn my life
has taken to date - and that was 26 years
ago. I morphed from work in a conforming,
intellectual university position, fully planning
on creating a "Skinner box" for
my firstborn (taken from the work of famous
behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner) and
returning to full time employment, leaving
my son with a nanny - to having a home birth,
family bed and committing myself to full time
motherhood and unschooling in a matter of
weeks. I have a story I tell about how this
transformation came to be, but for the life
of me I really can't figure out the magic
of how so much change descended into my inquiring
mind in such a short time.
No matter, as it was the impetus for the most
intense, profound love a person can experience.
I chose to open myself to that love, teaching
myself to observe, listen and nurture the
inherent intelligence in my child, and later
children, as I went on to have two more, a
daughter and then another son. My kids are
all grown now at 26, 24 and 20 and so different
from each other, so incomparable to anyone
else. Unschooling really does give power to
the individual to create oneself as one wishes
to be! All three of them, along with my husband
of 39 years, will be at the conference so
you can meet them and see for yourself - in
fact, my grown children continue to love the
conference event so much, they wouldn't miss
it. My husband and I have also come far on
unschooling ourselves as we create the space
to nurture our children to unschool themselves,
moving from lives of conditioned structure
and the pursuit of external rewards to lives
of self-directed, inspired action, self-employment,
parenting and be-ing.
The organizer in me was compelled years ago
to inspire others to take on this magical
(unschooled) road less travelled and I founded
theRethinking Education conference, now an
international event in it's 13th year, held
in the Dallas area over Labor Day weekend
in September. We do so much rethinking during
our 5 day event that we have evolved to an
official Rethinking Everything event this
year, inspiring not just unschooling but powerful
alternatives in health care, work, living,
eating, sex, sustainable living and lots more.
The conference slogan is "Do What You
Love, Love What You Do".
My favorite pastime is seeking out the company
of people of any age who are engrossed in
loving what they are doing. My decades-long,
unofficial study of this blissful state has
taught me that self- taught, self-made skill
rules. Stop jumping through another's hoopsand
turn on to what makes you tick and do that.
Give up your worries about how much money
it will produce, how long the interest will
last, whether there's any future in it. The
magic of following your heart opens big, wide
doors to unimaginable opportunities you can't
even begin to predict. Life is good, powerful,
pure magic and meant to be lived exactly as
you wish it to.
