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The zero-day | Day 185 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Jul 4, 2023

🇩🇰 Also available in Danish 🇬🇧

It was a surprise how tired we were when we arrived at the Attwoods home. Waking up in a beautiful garden with apple trees and roses and lush green grass, birds singing, and a tempting pool waiting for us, we could have jumped around, eager to spend the days with our friends here.

Eager to spend the days with our friends, instead, we calmed down to near zero.

Obviously, we feel safe and loved here so that we can be totally relaxed. This is part of the explanation. At the same time, I am sure; we had robbed our inner banks of some energy during the final week in Denmark. All of the family, maybe except my husband, who always has his balances, experienced a huge tiredness arriving.

Is it okay to be so tired?

Luckily we plan to stay a week, so the feeling of scarcity and it-has-to-be-right-now is not part of this exchange, which might be why we feel so good. It IS a good tired. A tired full of wanting to do yoga, meditation, smoothies, sleeping, massage, organizing, cooking healthy balanced meals.

This tiredness just needed to be accepted, and we all did our slow stuff. Bathing our feet, swimming in the pool, sleeping in the grass.

One of the significant advantages of the nomad lifestyle is scarcity. It keeps us awake.

The fact we are not staying long anywhere makes it always urgent to prioritize and do what is the most important always.

We can not fool ourselves; we have to do what is on top of the list.

This exact thing is, at the same time, one of the significant disadvantages. Significantly when we speed travel and move several times a week. Even though we have the freedom to do “nothing” if we want, scarcity sometimes leaves us under too much pressure to get things done. Especially connecting with people we might not see for a long time can be impossible to avoid because we do not want to.

We discussed how to plan with space, with “nothing,” and did not come up with a solution except the obvious: Slowing down. There are no regrets, just adjustments, and this “zero-day” was as beautiful as the big adventure days. We enjoyed it. 

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

🇩🇰 Also available in Danish 🇬🇧 

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Unschooling and Parent consulting, conversations, blogposts, and podcasts on family life and learning

Hi, I'm Cecilie Conrad. I'm a trained psychologist, mother of four, radical unschooler and full-time traveller. I have lived with unschooling for over a decade and help other families find their own path – whether it is about homeschooling, unschooling, or the bigger question of how you want to live as a family.

I offer guidance, conversations and talks. I call my work grandmothering – not coaching in the traditional sense, but presence, professional insight and concrete help navigating motherhood and finding your way home to your own values.

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