More objects
My loved one has a child from his previous relationship. This young fellow human will be spending more time with us this year. It feels wonderful and also humbling to have a child in our life. Children are so loving, carefree, playful, curious, honest. I love to observe how this human being interacts with the space. She is not thinking about status, accumulation, financial "success". She interacts with everything so freely. We live in a very small, 40 or so square meter studio apartment. And while our family members may think that this is too small, the little one never expressed her concerns. In fact, she likes this space very much.
Having another human being in our home, even from time to time, means inviting more objects in. We try to maintain our existing sustainability practices, but I can also see that I am stepping away from extreme minimalism even more. I do not feel bad about it, but it does mean having internal dialogues and doing much inner work. Some might say that these objects are not for me, they are for the child, and that I need to focus on my own consumption. And this is right, but it is my loved one and I who need to make good, sustainable choices when it comes to bedding, furniture, toys, food, and many other things. Recently we bought new bedding for the little one. Looking for options that are organic, certified, made by small, local businesses takes time. It is also expensive, so we try to buy items that will serve the child for many years to come. Some toys my loved one brought from the other apartment where the child lives currently. But she also plays with the stones we have at home and with a soft toy that my loved one has had since he was a child.
My hope is that the child will observe our sustainability practices and perhaps adopt some of them too. At the same time, there are so many other forces in society.