A girl in a commune

 

I’m waiting to see if someone is going to the city. First I’m getting a lift to the national park to use their shower.. The one here has worms in it.

 

it’s an ideology.. You’ve all been trained you see, but I have unleashed my mind. I’m not into self sufficient and all that, it’s too much like hard work. I used to work, but now. I get unemployment, my girlfriend gets unemployment, we get child benefit and her ex pays maintenance. I haven’t worked a day in years. Sometimes it’s a bit scary .. Bit on the edge but something always turns up at the the last minute. You’ve just gotta go with it.

 

“Shes a bit rough but she’ll get you there. The dog usually goes everywhere with me.. Wait til she sees me going off with you she’ll be making all kinds of noise it’ll be good for her.”

 

Alma

(What would you answer to those in the second half of life who have “given up”?)

I would say that the subconscious is in charge of our thoughts and our conscious does very little.. In the first half of life we are too busy having and raising children and getting jobs and climbing career ladders to take a good look at our fears.. But they are always there.. There’s a primal urge to self preserve against all comers.. The fears are real and imagined. I was raised in a poor area with a single mom and I grew up afraid of being abandoned, in fear of poverty, and even in fear of success.. If you’re not successful you can hide away.. No one will notice you, but you will not expand your life or your horizons either.. Fear makes you smaller in our culture there are a lot of women who have made themselves smaller so that others can grow.. Jesus said ask and you shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened. He meant it.. YOU do it!!

I would want to say to women in particular, be fearless and faithful. Fearlessness makes us bold to tread new paths, to step out, to grow and learn and develop.. And faithfulness does not bully others or belittle them or put them down..

Alna married a soldier at 18 and two years later her husband was killed in action. At 20, she joined the military too.

 

Colleen

I’m a conceptual sculptor, I work in concrete and metal, mostly. We had our children and I was a stay at home kind of mom. I looked after the children and the house and my husband and all that. I’ve always made things, my mother taught me to sew for example .. But then one day I took my son to the university campus for him to start his studies and I looked around this huge auditorium full of students and I thought: “want this.”

Then a few years later I don’t know I just thought.. This is it.. The day has come. This is the day. I was 55 and I signed up to take an art degree. And I’m just about to start work next week teaching first years at the university.. I can’t wait I am so full of ideas and plans.. I want to do some competitions and all sorts of things. I’ve taken all the furniture out of our sitting room.. It’s my studio now!

 

Grant

I’m a golf journalist. I feel blessed to have had a job I’ve loved for over thirty years.
But I’m retiring soon. New phase of life. I’m thinking about writing a book about South African golf courses.

Berenice

 

(What was the happiest day of your life?)

Oh there have been so so many that I can’t count them. Some people have forgotten that It is God who has breathed life into the day and so for them there is always something that is not good enough.

(What will you be doing tomorrow?)

Oh first I will be feeding the street children near my house in the morning I have been away a week they are always hungry but we have to feed them from our own pocket and so I can only do that once a week.. There are usually around 15/20 of them and then I will be seeing what other plans The Lord has for me to do.. Jeremiah says I know the plans I have for you says the Lord .. But I don’t know his plans and I don’t concern myself with knowing them I just get up thank him for his goodness and just do what ever seems good.
I told her Jon and I are Anglican vicars, she smiled and said, “I used to be an Anglican but now I’m born again.”

Berenice and her husband got onto the train along with 2 birds in a cage, several big plants, and a huge amount of boxes and suitcases and bags and bundles.. I asked why they had so much with them as they’d only been visiting family for a week and Berenice said, “well where I live if you leave your things in the house they wouldn’t be there when you get back so we take all the precious things with us.”