January 2020 – Last Year’s Key Takeaways and What’s to Come
Last year was a busy busy year.
My awakening deepens as time goes on (even though there’s absolute knowing there’s no time [or space]) but this is for a different post. In this awareness I live in the Present Moment moment to moment (which is the same moment) and there’s a deep sense of peace and fulfilment.
2019
2019 was an unexpected year: I moved to a new home (again) and spent 7 months living with my brother in La Orotava while my new home was being finished.
I had to make my natural skincare at my brother’s place (and will have to continue for a while as I settle at my new home) and experienced living in my hometown again after 30 years which I spent abroad.
At first it was fine to be ‘back’ but after a while I remembered how ‘knowing’ everyone can be a bit annoying. After living in London for almost 30 years in ‘anonymity’ it can be a little too much to know almost everyone that passes by (here we do say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ to everyone, so it can get tiring!).
As unexpected as it was to do building site on this new house so I could move to it, I also already knew Silence would ‘call me in’ at some point.
My new home is PERFECT for my awakening and the possibilities for deepening in Silence are endless. Even though the awakening doesn’t have a ‘place’ per se, like attracts like and the silence I am experiencing within has attracted the Silence that pervades the glorious land I’m moving into.
A New, Wonderful and Peaceful Home: It Feels Like Pure Luxury!
On the 31st December 2019 I slept for the first time in my new house. Yes, this little house is mine : ) No renting, no uncertainty, no landlords. Ooh, sooo nice!!!
I’m enjoying EVERY SINGLE LITTLE BIT of my being at my new home. From the moment I wake up in the morning (the first thing I see is the glorious timber ceiling) to the moment I go to bed (watching My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, I recommend it to anyone!) I experience the butterflies in my stomach and the feeling is simply oh-so-wonderful.
I still can’t believe this is MY home, that I can keep on working on it and improving it as time goes by – and as I please.
At times I feel I don’t deserve it – it was so hard in London living at the flat in Paddington, never really knowing what would happen, those were hard times. I was totally asleep in the ‘person’ and couldn’t see beyond the limits of the skin.
Nowadays it is a different story, thank god.
In the next year I’d like to keep recording my Spanish Non-Duality Youtube videos which I’ll continue at some point (I had to stop them because of my massive moving to my new home).
La Finca: Learning to Grow Greens
I found a guy who knows a lot about agriculture, Alejandro. He’ll be helping me with the land I sort of inherited together with the house. Around 3,000 square km of land, not bad! Plenty of room to grow my wonderful medicinal plants, trees and more. The plan is:
- To grow a plethora of medicinal plants as the years go by. I’d like to have a wonderful range of different varieties that I can use for my natural cosmetics, extractions in oil, cooking, etc etc.
- To grow mango trees in one of the areas in la finca. Around 30 or 40 mango trees.
- To grow passion fruit and use it as a wind shield. La finca is 200m away from the shore which means the sea winds are strong at times (and they bring with them a lot of sea salt). Great location though!
- To grow dragon fruit along the walls of the different platforms. Dragon fruit is expensive and the climate here is PERFECT for it.
- To harvest honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, etc from the honey bees Alejandro has brought over. At the moment we have 2 but he is planning on bringing more.
- I reserved a patch for growing my own veggies. I don’t eat meat (I do eat milk derivatives as well as fish) and I’m VERY excited about growing my own food! Again, the weather here is absolutely wonderful (zone 9-11) so I can explore growing many different types of seasonal vegetables.
Becoming a Natural Skincare Teacher
Last year I completed my course with the European Institute of Dermocosmetics. I travelled to Castellón in Spain and was there for a few days to do the course. I made lovely friends which I still keep in contact with (thanks Whatsapp) and this year I’ll be travelling to Castellón again to complete a new course Cristóbal (the man behind the Institute) is devising.
This course will prepare me to become a DIY cosmetics teacher which I’m very excited about.
I’m already an accredited technician so this would take it to the next level. I don’t feel AT ALL I’m at the level I’d like to be at (I started learning about making cosmetics in 2018) and this science-art-form needs time (a lot of it) in my view. I can manage the basics and still I struggle to remember what each ingredient is for, etc. I need time and experience. It’ll come.
Once I finish this course I’ll keep on learning and making products til I feel ready to teach here in La Finca, something I’d like to do at some point in the distant future.
DIY Natural Skincare Product Planning
In the autumn of 2019 I hooked up again with my auntie who is a chemist teacher for young adults and together we both started making soap.
She will be helping me this year with different new product formulas I’d like to explore. The idea is to get started making solid products. Here’s the plan:
- A formula for a good, solid shampoo. There are many formulas out there but I’m fussy and need to find the perfect one. I’m exploring shikakai powder as a possible natural ingredient since I’d like to use products that are as natural as possible
- A formula for a good, solid hair conditioner. There’s one here from Skinchakra which I think will do the job nicely! (Here’s the video).
- A solid body lotion (I have a formula somewhere, I need to find it)
Composting Community
At the same time Alejandro and I want to prepare a big compost area within each platform in la finca. This means I’ll be needing A LOT of food scraps!
I asked two of my aunties and another girl I know as they all eat organic vegetables. I thought they would be excited about piling their food waste and handing it over to me so I can feed the vermicomposts.
Oh, they were excited! I know how painful it can be to throw away what nature so badly wants back (placing vegetable peels in a plastic bag is EXTREMELY PAINFUL to me).
As it happens, they all live very near each other so I’m purchasing a big bin where they can place their food scraps. I’ll be collecting the scraps once a week or so in order to feed our worms.
So, without planning it we very suddenly created a food waste community which will be fantastic for everyone.
2020 is a promising year and I’m very excited to be enjoying it from my new, PERFECT place.
Home Really, Truly, is Within
Home is within, and the more comfortable we are with it the more the ‘without’ starts to also resemble it.
Love to everyone.
Patri xx
