Hello, Wholy Souly!

I’ve been updating this blog for the last week or so, giving it a new look. I’ve given it a new name too. Oh my, I spent hours trying to come up with a short and catchy one. Finding a suitable blog name was almost as challenging as choosing a name for a baby! Finally, I made my decision:

Where the Carol Birds Sing has turned into Wholy Souly!

I have another blog, Stories of an Unschooling Family, where I’ve been writing for more than 12 years, sharing my unschooling thoughts and ideas and our experiences of raising our children. This blog is a big part of my life. I’ve captured many family stories and memories within its posts. So leaving Stories of an Unschooling Family behind will be difficult. But that’s what I’m going to do. I know it’s the right time to move on and do something else. 

I’ve written unschooling to death. I’ve told every story I can think of. I’ve retold old stories in new ways, experimenting with audio, video, photos, graphics and different writing styles. I’ve even written and published three unschooling books. I’ve now run out of ideas for new things to say. 

There’s another reason why I’m moving on from my unschooling blog: I want to write about my own life and not my kids’. My children have been very generous, sharing their stories and photos with the world via my unschooling posts. But they’ve given enough. I want to respect their privacy and let them be adults in peace.

So I’m waving goodbye to Stories of an Unschooling Family. (I had fun creating you!) I’m now shouting, “Hello, Wholy Souly!“

If you scroll through this blog, you’ll notice there are already many stories waiting to be read by new readers. You’ll find my Carol Bird posts that I wrote during our covid years. But, deeper in the archive, you’ll also find some old grief stories I wrote about my son Thomas, who died as a baby. And I’ve imported a few posts about such things as ageing. They seem to belong here and not on my unschooling blog.

I recently heard someone tell an ageing story that went like this:

” A friend I hadn’t seen for a long time said, ‘What happened to you?!’ and I said, ‘I aged.'”

Why are we surprised when people’s appearances change? Ageing happens to all of us, doesn’t it? It’s a natural part of life. And why do we find adjusting to our maturing looks and this different stage of our lives so difficult? Perhaps we can explore ageing together on this blog.

This could lead to thoughts about appearance in general. Does it matter what we look like? Is the image we present to the world important? Do our outsides express our inner selves? Can we have fun with clothes and makeup, expressing our personalities and creativity? Or should we spend as little time as possible looking in the mirror?

There are many other things we could share. There’s our roles as women. Who are we when we’re not busy mothering? What talents do we have? What are we learning? Why did God create us? What’s our purpose? Are we living adventurous lives without fear, delighting in the gifts God sends us? Does He delight in us? Or does life feel challenging, grey and monotonous? If it does, do we trust that light will return to our days?

Do you ever find things online that excite you? There are ideas, knowledge and beauty contained in articles, books, videos, podcasts and websites that could deepen our sense of awe and wonder and our understanding of this life that God has given us. Could we share the good things about our lives, encourage each other through the challenging bits and live joyfully, wholly and solely for God?

I often discover delights through the lens of my camera, though I sometimes have trouble turning the beauty in front of me into attractive photos. Editing photos can seem difficult and is often frustrating. But maybe it doesn’t matter if my images are imperfect. I could still share some of my photography outings with you. And I could show you the beautiful place where I live. Perhaps I can also tell a few stories along the way.

Photos

I’ve sprinkled in a few photos that we took on our phones while recently visiting a local winery. As you can see, it was a wet autumn day and no one wanted to sit outside. Our family had the best table inside the cafe, the one by the open fire. We soaked up its warmth while enjoying delicious food and each other’s company. I had a glass of the winery’s excellent rosé wine, and one of the staff sang happy birthday while presenting me with a slice of cake that was embedded with a flickering candle. Maybe a birthday, marking a new year of my life, is a good time for a new beginning. It’s certainly a perfect time to explore, yet again, the complicated issue of ageing!

One last thought: despite the many grief stories on this blog, which, at first glance, may seem sad and grey, I hope Wholy Souly will be a place of beauty, joy and delight.

So what do you think? Please stop by and share your thoughts!