Primavera

 Um bom dia da Serra do Açor em plena floração Silvestre de tantas amadas plantas!

Viva a Primavera e as chuvas mil de Abril.

Looking at it now

 Looking at our tiny house with so much gratitude.

Every little thing is precious.

It may look untidy (because it is!), but it’s worth every single day to just look and appreciate this house of ours.

In autumn

 The sun shines.

The cold comes.

Rest is called.

A Portuguese podcast about our tiny house

 I was interviewed by the lovely Catarina for her podcast and she asked all amazing questions about the tiny house.

It’s in Portuguese and I loved it!

A view

 To our beautiful house in an April day:

Kitchen, bedroom, cat door and so much more!

David has put his ex camping gas to work - this is going to be our cooking station! After connecting the gas pipe here it is working well!

 Lara and Missanga have been enjoying the bedroom, in our tubisian pufs:

 And their step bed:

And the day to put the tiles arrived! So happy about it! These were given from a neighbour in Benfeita. I had to clean them all, because they were very dirty from the fire - some were black. And I used all purpose glue that is white but when it dries it gets transparent.

 Sometimes the view from the big window in the living room is very beautiful, sometimes is showing some problems! I woke up to this one of these days: a board in the exterior wall had fallen during the night.

"Estar presente é responder a cada momento.
Esta semana tive de responder a isto: uma tábua fora do sítio no exterior da Tiny House 🏡. Super fácil, certo? Certo! É só subir umas escadas, berbequim na mão e aparafusar direitinho.
Mas, ao subir as escadas tive de enfrentar o medo das alturas.
Custou por uns segundos, mas depois, sabem que foi tão fácil? Eu não sou o medo das alturas.
Sim, parece maior do que aquilo que é, o medo, mas na verdade o medo é uma ilusão.
A tábua tinha de ser re-aparafusada e foi isso que eu fiz; o resto, são histórias!
E hoje chove como ontem. Tão bom! 🌧🌬"

Organizing is my midle name! A small, tiny bouse has to be so well organized or else it doesn+t work! I asked my friend Lúcia if her family's wine company had some old wine boxes, so we coud use to organize things, like clothes. And she had quite a few! A lot more was organized with these, but I will show you in the future. For now, thank you Quinta Seara d'Ordens!

 And the entrance has been beautified with carnations, berries and echinacea. Plants everywhere!

The Tiny House is welcoming the Sunny June:

Yes! the lights are on, up in the bedroom area. It started with David's idea to have a light mandala on the roof, but this is what we made. It took me several hours to design it, paint it and then to apply the lights (one the lights were 3h of work and a neck pain, but an amazing and satisfying result!).

Cat door in! This was essential before moving! We had to make sure that they were able to go in and out the house so no accident would happen in - pee and poo! First picture with Missanga's tail and the second with David!

 Every area had to be aproved by the ladies! Bedroom area approved and sofa as well!

 Kitchen: one of my favourite areas here:

Work starts to happen: this is my office and this is paper work - taxes!

Sofa needed to be covered because the cats are changing or loosing fur - it's summer time!

This is are the old steps from the BUS where we used to live in. After the fire, we decided to keep some things so we could use them in the Tiny House. David divided it in two parts. I am taking the rust out and tomorrow I will paint it white. We are going to use it in the kitchen, so we can hang pots and plants to dry.

And that's it for now!

Did we move in already?

Dear all, here we are again!
I am just on the sofa, inside of the Tiny House!
Yes we have moved in... last week.
Can we believe it? Yes! Very much!

Here are the last videos that we recorded, few weeks before moving in:





 

A lot more has happened, but for now, I would like to share our experience living here.

1 week and 1/2 has gone by and we are living a dream.
Dreams come true.
Around October of 2016 we started the building of our home and going back to the first post of this blog, we started with gratitude.
And we continue in the same line.
Everytime that we turn on a light, lay down in bed, cook a meal, get dressed, move inside of the Tiny House, sit on the sofa looking at the landscape, sit on our meditation cushions to meditate, wash our dishes, look at the cats sleeping in thei step houses, everytime we open the entrance door and look outside we feel and we are grateful for this house.
For all the time that we spent designing and building it, for all the friends that helped us building it, for all the family support, for the resiliency of our souls and for the house itself.
We are in total bliss.
Even with so many things to finish yet, we are blissed out.
There is a deep knowing of being right that takes me to tears.
It is the path and the goal and both are the same.
The path is still happening and the goal, who knows what is it?!
It doesn't finish with moving in.
It's life and discovery.
It's change and transformation.
People keep saying that they don't know how we, as a couple, survived living for so many years in a BUS and then in a Caravan.
Well, nobody says it was easy, but what we know is that we look back and we laugh and we remember the challenges and what stays is gratitude - for the previous homes.
the BUS is gone as you know and the Caravan is turning into my work space.I started moving things and turning it into a beautiful workshop.
I will post pictures of it soon.
I want to acknowledge David's love and persistence during all this time so we could get to this point of the journey. Without that, without you my love, this couldn't be possible in this way. I love all that you have put in this house so far. 

We would like to share more pictures from these last months and a tour of how the house is now that we moved in.But you have to wait for the next post.

For now, I am just going to listen to some music, brew a delicious tea and seat on the sofa.

Wishing you all a wonderful week and sending a big hug,
with love,

Raquel

Scary times - evolutionary times

Did we think that this might happen?
No!

Life is a surprise... always.
These last times, after the fire and the strong winds and rain, made us question everything. Really everything.
But first things first. Just have a look at this and to what happened:

You can see the bit of land that just slided down!

Where the caravan is.

Where the Tiny house is.

The experience that I had was similar to the one after the fire: a gigantic fear that seemed to control me. That seemed to stop me from breathing (I had and still have lack of air in my lungs).  I couldn't sleep well and rest. I couldn't meditate. I couldn't write or read. Everything was stressful. Everything was intense. I would hear more rocks and soil going down and a big movie would start to play in my brain - thought after thought telling me that we were going to lose things again. That both the Tiny House and the caravan were going to fall down the mountain with all of our things. And worst, that we would be sleeping in the caravan and that the wind and the rain, would pull us down the hill. What a death!
My experience was that I couldn't live. That all of this was preventing me from living the life that I/we were supposed to live now.

We noticed that that is a need to be secure, to know that nothing is going to change, a need for stability, for everything being good with no problem or crazy situations. A need for everything to be flat and with no strong emotions.
But what is this need? A need that comes from a part of us that is not real, but it is experienced as so real and so alive. These strong emotions seem to make it real. But what is this "it" that I am refering to?
If you are a human being, I am sure you experienced this. All of these emotions and intensity is not bad at all! Everything is part of life, it is life. Everything is God/Consciousness.

After a while, and continuing to sit in the meditation cushion and to live in rainny and uncertain days, and with the help of Australian florals, a lot was revealed:

- Life is expressed in every moment and situation, no matter what the human experience is;
- There is no bad or good situations, but situations that cause different emotional experiences;
- There is nothing wrong in having emotional experiences;
- A human being is rich and there is a perfection in how one experiences different situations;
- Avoiding, denying and not accepting what happens (what is) leads to suffering;
- Accepting and embrancing what happens (what is) leads to reality and to a deep relaxation;
- Control or wanting to predetermine the future it's, not only a waste of time, but something that prevents oneself to be and live the present moment, and is actually an ilusion;
- One has the choice to respond in a liberated or in a constrained/conditioned way to any life situation;
- Every moment is the moment to make a different choice;
- One doesn't know what surprises life/universe/God/consciousness has for oneself and that's a relief;
- The peace that comes after the storm it's one's choice;
- The peace can happen during the storm or not happen at all, but that doesn't take reality or presence ever away!
- One is not victim of life situations, one is!

And these floral remedies were great to stay with the constant fear and the questioning why - why there is such a threat after the house survived to the fire and to the caravan which is where we are living now? 

That and knowing that everything is right, no matter what.

For now, and after talking with Sr. Ângelo and his visit here, everything is not only calm, but fresh and alive. Nothing is a warranty of anything! Except that consciousness is, no matter what. No matter if one is challenged, is suferring, avoiding or denying what is happening.

Life is so beautiful and full. 

One is beautiful and full, in the midst of intensity and in the possibility of a transformation or a strong challenging situation.

Right now, the days are getting bigger, sun is up and the light and calmness are big. Actually, lightness and relaxation are all the time, I was just distracted from it, which is fine!

With love,
Raquel