Claire’s Footprint

My daughter Tobey was telling me about tiny houses. These alternative homes are often no bigger than 500 square feet and are an attractive option for those with the intention to live with a smaller footprint. That’s Tobey and Porgy in the picture above as we walk to Claire’s house, about a mile down a mud road.

Here are Claire’s feet as we stand in her kitchen. She painted the floor with leftover house paint.

Tobey admires the kitchen. The house is off the grid. Claire has solar power backed up by a generator. Her stove is a combination of wood and gas and her refrigerator is propane powered.

Claire’s water system is solar powered. She says she has to drain the pipes if she is away overnight in the winter.

This is Cinderella, she got her at FAO Schwartz in New York when she was a child.

The house is beautiful and well swept.

It could be a museum.

The pictures on the walls are amazing, and she does her own wallpapering.

I don’t mean to give you the idea that Claire lives as if in an earlier century. She has a laptop and today’s New York Times.

Claire doesn’t even have a tiny house. She simply has a small footprint. Her choice of life style reminds me about intention. We all live with intention. We simply don’t ask ourselves what our intentions are. When you think about your intentions, dive past the layers and daily reasons for doing what you do. Look into your root aspirations and you may find that your deepest intentions should not be overlooked.