[meristohm]

I like helping others learn and grow. Having a child helped focus my sense of purpose, but I already cared to help others, as a classroom teacher and private tutor. Parenting gave me a second childhood, during which I read Complex PTSD by Pete Walker (2010) and significantly reduced passing on the ongoing trauma I experienced during my childhood. I find joy in being okay with simply pausing and breathing like a resting dog (inhale until full, then relax and let it out, not inhaling again until the need arises), observing how my body feels wherever I am. I find joy in moving around the world under my own power or augmented by an ebike (bakfiets, for carrying my child, groceries, etc). I do not find joy in sitting in a car and letting gasoline or electricity move me and more than a ton of metal and plastic along a lifeless strip of asphalt, but I do it to meet the medical needs of my family members (otherwise I seldom outsource my mobility needs beyond human-powered machines). I find joy in learning, which is part of why I keep returning to HN; I find many of your choices to be harmful to life on earth in the long run, and it's also where I learned of solar.lowtechmagazine.com, so here I am.