Curious and Curious

I feel a bit nervous trying to write the first entry for our new blog to document our second year of homeschooling. I say homeschooling because that is what has inspired and given space to this venture but really I'm hoping to create more seamlessness between our learning and our life. 

I used to be an avid writer of papers, letters and journals and I have not written much besides grocery lists in years. So, part of this blogging experiment is for me to find my writers voice (and hopefully other parts of myself) again. 

The first name that I thought of for this blog was "finding our way" (but that was taken). I turned 40 this year and questions of personal identity are bubbling over. Who am I? What do I really believe? What's important to as I move into the second half of my life? What are the core values that I want to pass onto my children and how do I go about doing that? How do I support my children in finding their own voices and cultivating their strengths? So this blog is partially to share with family and friends bits and pieces of our life but also as a mirror for myself. I'm curious to see what creative connected whole might emerge from the puzzle of pieces we lay out here. 

Curiosity is the goal here. Many years ago a mentor of mine told me to, "stay curious as long as possible." I've always thought of that in terms of how to show up when dealing with a particular complicated or challenging situation. But the truth is, this whole being alive thing is really a complicated, challenging situation. 

I also like that curious has two meanings. One curious being: eager to learn more, and the other curious  being: rousing interest because of novelty or strangeness. While at other points in my life I've worked very hard to make everything line up and make sense at this point in my life I'm prepared to be both curious and curious.