OaksPass as a Playground

We came up with great ideas today on how OaksPass is not just a scheme vehicle to extract money from other people but a playground for us to learn things about website tools, workflow, and *ourselves* really. How we work, what lights is up, what depresses us, how to manage both highs and lows, how to self-regulate, externalize our feelings, re-parent our inner child, challenge our thoughts, and practice awareness, just like the note I have under a magnet on my fridge.

We are already assessing and exploring our tendencies, our habits, our desires, our fears, our rituals. We like playing. We like making stuff. We start from nothing and doodle, making lines, no real idea what we're drawing yet, but knowing we like drawing and we like the process of drawing. We're writing a line of a song, playing a rhythmic melody idea, knowing that a song might come out of it, but if not, so what? Another song will come later, simply writing is what's fun. Each new line appears when it does. It's not finished instantly. We like making things. We like playing. We like winging it in a sense, because it means the process is in motion, it means we're playing instead of not playing. We're doing. Doing is the thing.

Okay, so we're giving ourselves permission to go out and play here. We'll start building the site. We'll use SquareSpace and start building out the site with an eye towards the structure we envision... Sharing our fun, interesting, compelling, silly, joyful, radiant selves, characters, ideas, pathos, humor, insight, observations about this crazy life we're living and experiencing.

The site structure and menus will enable us to post and share our creativity... Articles, images, videos, stories, books, movies, skits, ideas, products, service offerings. The store will enable us to sell things that we make or our friends and acquaintances make. Paintings, surfboard art, glass works, drawings, repurposed junk art, shells, weavings, fabric, food, chocolate, toys, books, songs, shows, events, services. We'll make articles we can re-sell to other sites, we'll make reels to draw people to our site but also let us playfully learn how to make and publish reels. How to write and publish articles. How to be us in the world.

OaksPass aligns with the life that we want to create because it's a playground we can run to for fun and exploration. A backyard to explore after breakfast. A park where we can bring our lunch and eat it in a tree and listen to the birds, feel the texture of the green leaves between or fingers, blow loud whistles through a blade of grass pinched between our thimbs. And when we're tired we can walk back home for dinner, an excited discussion with loved ones, laughter, and our comfy beds to dream before tomorrow comes again.

It won't always be great. Sometimes we'll get in arguments with our friends because we'll want things to be *just right* or whatever. Something will get under our skin, we'll get cranky, we'll want to be alone, or playing with someone else right now, feeling anxious or unsettled or unsatisfied. That happens sometimes in play. We'll honor those moments and feelings and make space for them, acknowledge them, listen. It'll be okay. We'll trust future us to work it out. We'll trust present us to work through the discomfort. We'll grow together and make our way through this crazy wonderful jungle day by day, moment by moment.