You can listen to my latest podcast expanding on this subject, over on Spotify

Dearest beloved Hive,

I came back to bed this morning with my giant cuppa of Earl Grey, and some thoughts about what to share here today... My mind brims wildly with ideas in the mornings, especially very first thing, with the dawn chorus and the early light just grasping the room in which I sleep. I wake up in somewhat of a jumble, as this is my sewing room - the biggest, brightest and superior balconied chamber of the Arthouse - and the walls and space are filled with racks of garments, many awaiting transformation. I like living in this busy-ness, rather than the conventional rhythms of leaving the house for work. I could make it all a lot more organised (and I have tried!!!!) but my creativity is adapted to this wonderful soup of sensation: living in the possibility, in the Gift of Abundance - even of excess!

I don't feel my palette of clothes to be excessive in the usual sense of ego and trying to look like something that we think others will be impressed by/ attracted to; I love this wealth of potential, because it has been harvested so so slowly and with a tiny dripdrip of resources. (If you follow my blog regularly, you'll know it is almost ALL from the 50c stall in Telese Terme's Saturday market!) Which makes me think of crypto, and how the very-slow, very-long-term is a beautiful - even spiritual - model of thriving.

My journey in crypto began I think through meeting Anja @connecteconomy back when I was doing Marie Forleo's B-School (yuck! - the get-rich programme that finally convinced me that earning in the conventional way was NOT for me!) I seriously had spent, up to that point, about 90% of my adult working lifeline exploring commerce; courses, programmes, mentoring, experimentation in pop-up shops and galleries, events and festivals, art fairs and commissions, branding and social entrepreneurship... It had been a long, hard learning curve, over at least 30 years of striving to find a concept/ structure/ method for making money... but somehow I was still on the flat plains of not-earning. Hmmm.

Anja did an interview with me at the time, late 2018/ early 2019, and that conversation was hugely helpful in reorienting after being effectively flung off of mainstream 'social' 'media'. Talking with her allow me to reflect on what I was even using the internet for, and where I actually wanted to be socially, economically, holistically. The new world I was coming into - then Steemit, D-Tube, etc - seemd like a great quick fix for all the community, witnessing and earning that I appeared to be completely locked out of in the mainstream.

The instant solution was not so, in the first months and even years on the Hive blockchain: I came into the crypto world in fits and starts - enthusiastically, but not seeing results, and seeming to have the same problems that mainstream had plagued me with - and I let things slide at several points over the next few years... It wasn't until I got into blogging about Living In Gift, gardening, Real Art., and Needlework - once I got into the groups and the real community fabric of Hive, that I noticed a significant difference.

The real fabric of our interconnectedness can be elusive: we all seek more connection, more community, more flow and spontaneous co-creative energising in our everyday. But this seemed like an impossible kind of Shangrila in the virtual world! How can one be fully present, and collaborate with others, when they are in different cultures, times zones, climates and norms?? And when my basic tech was only giving a grainy, clunky, frequently-frozen window into others' lives, works, characters??? Again, I tried in dribs and drabs to get that identity of connection via continuity and a kind of 'branding', hoping I was going to become 'popular' or even just to be SEEN... to little effect. But some roots and shoots began to form. I persevered with posts about the magical place in which I live, my quiet adventures DIY and fixing up my Italian medieval quarter home (and community!), my Art., and my thriving in Gift economy...

The 'lockdown' proved to be a turning point in my relationship with the internet, crypto and the Hive blockchain: for better or for worse, I was fully-in, and would not be going back to earning the regular way; my income plummeted, and my quality of life - though initially was shaken and needed some tweaking - began to climb. The local community locked me out, but the world opened up online. This seemed strange to me: it went against all my programming and all-my-eggs-in-one-basket-ing that I'd been doing up to that point in my life, by expecting to depend always on fiat currency, pounds and pennies, euros and cents. In parallel with the realisation that I didn't WANT to be part of the conventional economy (when it appeared that we might be imminently expected to take a lethal jab just in order to buy our daily bread and milk), there rose this recognition that it WAS possible to connect online, if one's attention, intention and shared vision were fully present. It simply required commitment.

During the 'lockdown' (I never consented to lock myself in my own home, and was out and about more than ever!) I started developing relationships with myriad communities and individuals, most of which petered out after a year or two, and finding that the intimacy, warmth and meaning I was looking for was entirely achievable online, with a bit of effort and time. I began with leading Art. workshops, and developed regular Co-Creation meet-ups, and found that deep, expansive conversation about what was really happening in the world, was entirely possible. Hallelujah! I found my tribe, if it was a bit here and a bit there... As many of the groups set up (effectively) in opposition to the 'lockdown' no longer had the momentum behind them, and as life calmed to a bizarre new 'normal', I was incredibly grateful for the growing relationships I had - most of which were now through The Hive and the Signal App. I was able to navigate how the world was shifting ONLY through sharing online, blogging, podcasting and conversing privately... And the communities: sharing my domestic alchemy journal, The Art Of Life and my Living In Gift experiences, I started to feel - THIS is what I need, want and vision: a holistic spontaneous interbeing with other living women and men, very simple really!

And what happened to my exploding crypto income? Oh, well that didn't seem so relevant, in the end. But it is there: I was able to avoid several near-disasters financially by pulling from my Hive wallet. I now possess a small (what I jokingly term) 'nest egg' of BTC. I got my podcast on Fountain at last, and am stacking SATS. My Patreon continues to give me fiat pocket-money that I can subsist on, and produce appears in the semi-abandoned gardens below my home, just as I need it... And - most importantly - my mind and heart are calm about any eventuality that will unfold with banking, authorities, and the increasingly absurd 'norms' of mainstream.

I am now quietly confident in my capacity to adapt, make do and mend, and my lifestyle is powerfully rich in all senses: my time is my own, there are no deadlines or pressures from outside to earn, I need very little and I feel utterly blessed with every gift that comes to me... and through each and every day, I have income dripping in via crypto: it might be minimal, but it is steady - and it is growing in value. This is a Right equation! All the other models I ever studied or tried out were pulling me out of myself; they were asking for much more than they were giving me in return. In contrast, the crypto which comes in for me is ALIGNED with my loves, my connectedness, my dreams and friendships and sweet spots and happy moments. THOSE things are being valued and supported by the communities I am part of - rather than my ego being stoked and my day being filled with the detritus of mainstream distractions and enter-taint-ment.

I love my journey on Hive and in crypto; I love realigning with real values, of being rewarded and rewarding others for beautiful things: for gardening and cooking, sharing their emotions and expressing their Truths, for seeking answers and being inventive and genius! I LOVE the daily comfort of being held in communities - being witnessed in all my failings and successes, winning an occasional contest or being Gifted a tip or present of tokens. It is all positive, and it feels like we are all in this for each other as much as for our selves!

This is different from the mainstream models, where, despite all the positive talk of revolution and resistance, change and transformation, healing and evolution - still the focus is on structures that alienate our creative power, the sacred feminine, the quiet Truth of us all ALREADY being powerful, beautiful, free, rich in Oneness. For all the chat and blah about change, most folks in the 'alternative' world cannot see beyond the pyramid that they've been cultured to see as 'the only way', which at least keeps them in benefits and priveleges, whilst those below them invisibly toil and strain to hold them above...

The Way is not clear, and yet it is obvious - it is lots of Ways, and each and every One of them is valuable and valid... Once we are able to settle down into our own quiet heart and mind: when all action comes from here, from core and calm; there is no need to grasp for anything - all things we need come to us. When we are calm and clear, the one step that we have to take, forward, appears in front of us, and we simply, effortlessly, take it. In my consciousness, crypto has a good potential of liberating humanity from slavery and into thriving - and Hive is most surely one of the potent pillars of our potential surthrival.

Overall, Hive and crypto are a great boon for me: they bring me energy and they hone my attention in a positive and creative sense - rather than taking my time, attention and focus, and loading me up in return with clutter like mainstream does! Living within the Right equation gives one a sense of Life and Vitality that cannot come - at least, not for me! - from earning conventionally. And so I will continue to invest my beingness here, and to collaborate and co-create with you all.

Onwards and upwards into a wide-open horizon, friends!

LovE!

all photographs on this post taken by myself - in and around my home in Guardia Sanframondi, Italy, and on the Isle of Arran, Scotland

www.claregaiasophia.com