Saturday, July 30, 2011

Our Simple Life : A Journey

We have decided as a family that we are much happier the more simple our life becomes. By simple I don't mean using more modern conveniences like take out food and buying the new i-pad. I mean quite the opposite. I like the way Leo Babauta said it.:
"A simple life has a different meaning and a different value for every person. For me, it means eliminating all but the essential, eschewing chaos for peace, and spending your time doing what’s important to you.
It means getting rid of many of the things you do so you can spend time with people you love and do the things you love. It means getting rid of the clutter so you are left with only that which gives you value."

Our journey had been slow and has been less painful and more rewarding than one might think. Over the next few months I am going to catch you up on some of the changes that we have made in our lives that I feel have brought our family closer and happier over the past year. Most of these things do take longer to do (especially if you include your children in the process), but it is so well worth it and I highly recommend practicing patience and encouraging your children to work along side you. I think that the average child or even adult in the western world is looking for things to entertain themselves with (hence the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry) instead of doing "real" work that humans have done for thousands of years that bring a deep soul level of satisfaction and a connection to self, nature and family that can not be replaced. I think it is within the work that we develop and teach our children to develop endurance, patience, creativity, co-operation, thoughtfulness, kindness, mindfulness, and many other wonderful characteristics a tools that they will be able to use as they move into the world on their own.  

Look for my weekend blogs entitled "Simple Living" as I talk about the  ways we have found to bring more peace and meaning into our family life.
For this week, I will leave you with a few pictures of our walk to explore our back yard. We decided to go for a family stroll to see what we could observe and  find in nature. This is a simple way to connect with each other that we have adopted into our regular routine. Our cat Harvest even loves to join us. You know when the animals are happy, you must be on the right track. Although he does get a little nervous if we stray too far.



1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think simple living is so important. Personally I long to move to a place where people live more naturally! Maybe someday. =) By the way, great pics!