Original post from tUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2007. The info and sentiments here have not changed in the last 3 years, so I am reposting this here for my new readers.
Who is this person and why is she telling me this?
Simple living and quality of life are going to be frequent topics here on this blog, in addition to food related topics. I have lived a incredibly complicated life that was not a happy life and I have lived an extremely simple life that was my Nirvana. Hence, my confidence at my ability to speak on these subjects because I am eminently qualified to do so.
Simple doesn't mean easy, by the way. It means doing things and living your life in a way that has been divested as much as possible from dependence on someone else for your health, happiness and well being. It means being self sufficient and able to cope with adversity in a healthy, productive way and to always keep in mind that you are trying your best to do things in a positive and beneficial way for not only yourself, but the world around you. "First do no harm" should be the mantra of everyone who wants to improve the quality of their life.
I didn't always live my idyllic life on an organic farm. As an adult, my personal successes were always overshadowed by the feeling that something in my life just wasn't right. With every triumph, there seemed to be a trial, like my life was trying to constantly stay in balance. For everything I gained, it seemed like I gave something up and many times it felt that something was a little piece of my soul.
The Universe seeks harmony in everything. Ergo, perfect harmony is perfect balance, therefore the good has to be weighed against the bad or it has no meaning and no lesson is learned. It took a personal epiphany and a pivotal event to shake me up enough to realize that I needed to pay attention to what the Universe was trying to get across to me. And it shook me hard, when it did.
Just over a decade ago, I was hip deep in corporate America. Five days a week I made a 30 mile commute, ONE WAY, into the city. I then spent 10 hours a day in one of the ten most stressful (according to Health magazine, it is still #6) jobs in America. For years, I didn't get enough sleep at night and suffered from stress related illnesses. I missed so many of my kids' milestone events that I lost count. I made lots of money, but in the end money didn't bring any happiness and I still felt hollow much of the time. Predictably, my marriage began to crumble and my husband moved out. Suddenly, my family seemed to be dissolving right in front of me. The work that had seemed so important to me became trivial and bourgeois.
Yet I had participated in this chaos for years, it was how I lived my life. That is, until one day some sort of cosmic light came on and I realized that everything negative in my life was directly related to the way that I was living. I simply had to let it go and move in a new direction.
And so, armed with that revelation, I quit my job, packed my kid (the one still at home...my older son was already in college) into my car and drove 3000+ miles to the left coast, basically leaving my old life behind. I rented a house, sight unseen, from some guy in Canada, in a town I have never seen or even heard of. At that point I embarked on the journey that has led me to my present life.
Was that crazy? You betcha. Was it scary? You can't imagine. Was it the right thing to do? At the time, for me, absolutely. Not everybody has to take such extreme steps to find their way to a simpler, more meaningful life. For some, it might be as simple as organizing the kitchen cupboards, for others it will take a major life alteration. Finding the place you want to be and then having the courage to take that first step onto a new path is the hardest part of the journey.
So, from the harried city dweller, doing the 9 to 5, who is just plain fed up with the stress in their life, to those parents who are concerned with the world their kids are going to inherit, we all have something in common. Hopefully, there will be things here in my blog that will serve as a resource for you to use as you travel along your path. If simpler and more natural ways of living are what you are seeking in your life, you will find information, resources and lots of inspiration here to help you on your personal journey .
Namaste.
