At the Lost Trades fair in Kyneton, Victoria, artisans and craftswomen and men are once again celebrated. And you could see from the hundreds and hundreds of people there how much communities crave the slow, the heartfelt, personal, intimate and highly skilled world that once adorned us. With so much abundance (in terms of consumer goods) sometimes comes a sense of starvation. Our hearts can feel a little empty when everything is there all of the time, in every season. When the idea of there being something special no longer exists. When meaning and importance is drained from material objects because their sheer numbers give them little worth.

I often despair at the stuff that infiltrates my life. I ask for no gifts. And I judge what gifts are given harshly: as either another landfill embellishment or as something that will truly last.

In Kyneton my heart was filled to the very brim with the skills I saw, with stories told and with the peacefulness of slow.