Simple living changes people. Simple living changes how you see the environment, your neighbours, and yourself. Radical simple living changes how you view the society you live in, it makes you question the values by which we run our lives and the way governments behave. It may even convince you that deep fundamental change is necessary, not only in your life, but in the lives of everyone on the planet, the other life forms on the planet, and the way our management of the planet needs to be questioned. Make no mistake simple living is much more of a force for change than you may think! Even vegetable gardening!
“In our society, growing food ourselves has become the most radical of acts. It is truly the only effective protest, one that can—and will—overturn the corporate powers that be. By the process of directly working in harmony with nature, we do the one thing most essential to change the world we change ourselves.”
~ Jules Dervaes
Why Live Simply?
The reasons for adopting a simple lifestyle are often only perceptible to those who do so. Ask any practitioner and you will get a range of answers varying from those who see it as a way of ‘opting out’ of the system to those who see it as a spiritual path which helps them to add an additional dimension to their lives. As for myself as a Quaker, I see a simple lifestyle as a way of focusing my attention on important things whilst clearing away the physical and mental clutter that goes with life in a post-industrial society. Those ‘more important things’ include my family, and a kind of three-pronged communion with God, my community and myself. For you it might be very different, but while our reasons for travelling the road to simplicity may differ, our direction is the same ~ the desire to live a more simple, more satisfying, more rewarding life. In this ‘new life’ we accept the need to be more self-sufficient, less dependent on the consumer-led society around us and more satisfied with what we have. We do not expect a simpler lifestyle to give us more money, more material possessions, more power over the lives of others or even more time, but we do expect that the quality of our lives, and the lives of those we come into contact with, to be touched by the beauty and grace-like calm of simplicity.
“Try to live simply. A simple lifestyle freely chosen is a source of strength. Do not be persuaded into buying what you do not need or cannot afford. Do you keep yourself informed about the effects your style of living is having on the global economy and the environment? ”
Advices and Queries: Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain 1994
My grandfather Sidney Albert lived simply. He lived in a small house in the country, grew his own vegetables, kept a few chickens and all his food was cooked at home in the kitchen. His house had no electricity or gas; it was kept warm by a wood burning stove and lit by oil lamps and candles. I was very young when he died, but I do remember him wearing a collarless shirt, black worsted trousers, braces (that’s suspenders in North America) and a waistcoat (a vest in North America). He never ever went out without a hat and only went out when he had something important to do. Each day he tended his garden, ate his home-cooked supper, read by his oil lamp and finally went to bed. My sister and I were always fascinated by his outside lavatory which consisted of a very small shed over a deep hole over which was a shelf, with a large hole in it on which you sat!
Before you leap to conclusions about my grandfather let me clear up a few points; he was not Amish, neither was he Quaker (although I am, but please don’t let that worry you), he was not a member of some austere socialist ‘back to the land’ movement, nor a hermit like transcendental philosopher. In fact, he was a retired stonemason who voted Conservative and read the Daily Telegraph. Those ‘important’ outings I mentioned were usually to the village store or, more rarely, to the local Anglican Church. This was not too long ago either, the early 1960s, before the small group of cottages in which his home was situated was connected to mains water or the electricity grid. And geographically he was not, as you will have guessed by now, in rural Ohio; rather he lived in Berkshire in the UK. A noisy motorway now runs not far away from where his simple and tranquil retirement took place.
The big difference between simplicity now, and simplicity then, is that in his day, rural living was simple! He didn’t choose a simple life, he just accepted it. Today, complexity of life is the ‘norm’ which we are all expected to accept, and a simple life is a choice that we make and an aspiration that we work towards. Living simply today is voluntary - it is also an act of nonconformity and may even be seen as a radical act of passive resistance – it’s really up to you!
"The attraction of simplicity is mysterious because it draws us in a completely opposite direction from where most of the world seems to be going: away from conspicuous display, accumulation, egoism, and public visibility — toward a life more silent, humble, and transparent than anything known to the extroverted culture of consumerism."
~ Mark A. Burch
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