I used to think the defining word of unschooling was freedom.
Freedom attracted me. I wanted to be free to do whatever I liked. I wanted to get up each day and do anything or nothing at all.
But I soon realised there’s a problem with freedom. If we always do whatever we like, won’t we become self-centred? Thinking only of ourselves won’t lead to happiness because we were made for love, and love involves other people.
I heard that freedom exists for the sake of love. That’s the point of freedom. We should spend our freedom on love.
Freedom exists for the sake of love.
– Pope St John Paul II
We must be free to love, to choose what’s right. Forcing someone to do what is loving isn’t true love.
I discovered that a single word can’t define unschooling. Freedom alone is not enough. We also need love.
I used to write mainly about the delights of filling empty days with learning motivated by curiosity instead of someone else’s plans. But more and more, my unschooling heart tells me to write about love.
Love stories make my heart sing.
But I wonder if I will run out of ideas for new stories about love.
I think of how God’s love for each of us is unique. We each have a unique love for God, and the love we show each other is also unique.
Love has infinite faces. It’s intricate, exquisitely beautiful, surprising, never-ending, limitless, unfathomable, mysterious, all-powerful, life-changing.
There are infinite love stories in the world. Which ones belong to me?
Each connection with God, my husband, kids, friends, and strangers is an opportunity for me to love.
Every minute of my day could be a love story
All my days could overflow with love stories.
My life could be one big love story.
If I choose to love, I won’t run out of stories to tell. Love others, and the stories will appear.
So, I’m free to choose love. That’s what’s at the heart of unschooling.
We go through our unschool days following our curiosity, using our talents to fulfil our missions in life, helping, encouraging and respecting each other, and trusting we’re becoming who God created us to be. We try to do everything with love. When we fail, we forgive one another.
We fill our days with a million love stories.
We write each story by freely choosing to give each other what all our hearts desire: love.
So, I share my unschool love stories. I have lots of them. How about you? Do you have lots, too?
More Love Stories
Here are a few of my love stories:
My Private Love Stories
Some of my posts need a password because I want to protect my children’s privacy. I don’t want the whole world to have access to them! If you’d like the password, please leave me a comment and I’ll send it to you. If you’d like to make a small Buy Me a Coffee donation, I’d appreciate your support!
Radical Unschool Love
If you’d like a book of love stories, why not check out my book Radical Unschool Love?
This is really nice! Thank you! I’ve enjoyed the posts here over the years very, very much.
Our unschooling journey is still percolating along here in San Francisco. There’s been more camping, less writing of late, but more math, science and engineering are a bit of a constant, go figure with physicist and engineering parents 🙂
Hamilton,
It’s so good to hear from you! I was thinking about you the other day, wondering how you and your family are. And no you’ve stopped on my blog and shared some news. Thank you!
You’ve made my day with your kind comment. Thank you! 😊