If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavours to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau
I sent that quote to one of my sisters the other day when she was struggling with an important decision. It really speaks to me and reminds me that while our lifestyle may not be everyone's cup of tea, it suits us, it enriches us and we must remain confident in our decision to live as we do.
Confidence: freedom from doubt; belief in yourself and your abilities.
We humans are strange beings sometimes. We like uniformity, we distrust those who run outside the pack. We like to have our own decisions validated by the mass appeal of them, and when that doesn't happen, when someone runs against the grain, we are suspicious and sometimes resentful. I'm sure many readers here have friends or family members who question your way of life, who want you to come to your senses and go shopping for all sorts of flim flam or who resent and question your decision to stay home with the children and "for go" one wage.
Staying home to raise healthy children is not an easy option. Living frugally to embrace a greener way of life is difficult. Making your home a place of regeneration and cosy safety will put you at odds with most of your contemporaries. So why do we do it? Is it because there is joy to be found in ordinary every day life? Is it because we know that unless we change the way we constantly trash our environment we are in big trouble? Is it that we're just fed up with what modern life has become - we find a feeling of belonging and contentment in a more simple way?
No matter what your reason is in striving to live as you do, be confident in how you live and what you're trying to achieve. Keep moving towards your own independence, keep learning how to do all the things you want to do; reskilling yourself will help you live true to your values. Above all else know that if you are happily settled in your version of a simple life, or if you're just starting your journey, you will meet with a success unexpected in common hours, and you will find contentment and happiness along that track.
Now, the fridges. I hope I've clearly demonstrated that I DO KNOW what you're all doing. ; - ) Anita, Tracy, Quinne, Char - I know. LOL I'm really impressed that a lot of you clean out your fridges regularly - Elizabeth, I want you to go have a cup of tea while we work today. The rest of the ladies and I will be cleaning out our fridges. I'll be back later to post a photo of my fridge. If anyone wants me to add their own clean fridge photo just email it to me and I'll include it later today. Happy cleaning ladies!
THANKS, Rhonda, for this post : a real good one for meditation !
ReplyDelete(and thanks forall other posts, too ! :>)
Reading you has become my evening ritual, before going to sleep, (I'm ending my day when you start yours) and it's so inspirational !
Smiles from Belgium...
NADINE
First comment here on your blog for me, although I have been reading for a while. I love this post. Own your life. How inspiring. We do need to own our lives and homes, in their entirety, the good and the bad, the messy and the beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rhonda, so very apt.For if we don't own our own lives, who does? It takes courage to follow your own path, especially if it's away from the masses. Like Nadine, I really enjoy my evening read, winding down before bed. Diana x
ReplyDeleteI also keep my fridge wiped down regularly including the gaskets. I always feel it's easier to wipe up something that has dripped while it's fresh than to come back later and possibly have to scrub at it. I tend to use up what I have so it's not often I throw away food gone off. Personally I don't see the problem with leftovers. Less cooking for me after a hard day feels like something to make my life simpler.
ReplyDeleteAlso this may be slightly off topic but considering your new "chooks" I thought you might be interested to read this article I came across today on Backyard Chickens. Enjoy.
Urban Agriculturalist: Backyard Chickens
Hi Rhonda,
ReplyDeleteVery well said and sensitively put. I have often thought about humanity's issue with diverse thinking and behaviours. It's so interesting to me that nature, in all its variety of forms is a great model of diversity. It loves and thrives on and sustains itself because it supports diversity. In fact if nature was modelled on monocultures it would have been wiped out long ago. Yet we as people seem to have a strong vestige of the herd mentality, "safety in numbers" so entrenched in our thinking. It takes a lot more higher brain activity to step outside of that model and direct our own lives to our own ideas, showing respect for ourselves and respect for others that think differently, especially when we're tempted to think "they may have got it all wrong".
Regards, Marilyn
The older I get, the more I just have to be me. I just cant be anyone else anymore.
ReplyDeleteSo its fine to recycle, to grow stuff, to like colour, to follow Jesus, to be absolutely true to who I am inside and not follow the lead of the rest of the world.
I like the person I am. I enjoy simple life and themes. I find true pleasure in my home when I potter around in it. In cooking and cleaning(cant believe I am saying this). In caring for my husband and our doggies and cats and the veges too.
Reading your blog Rhonda has become part of those simple routines that continue to validate me and encourage me. I so enjoy reading each day.
Blessings, Juanita.
Hi Rhonda Jean :) Just popping in with a hug and to celebrate our clean fridges! Love, Q
ReplyDeleteRhonda, I'm in a funk related entirely to the tensions within our family over the choices we have made versus the standard way. It's really not very easy being different, and while I'm confident in the choices we've made, I've still got some work to do when it comes to marrying those choices with family get togethers where we just don't connect at any deep level with these people we are related to. I'm meditating on this point and using this as a fine procrastinating moment for not cleaning out the fridge....which I did last week.
ReplyDeleteLisa x
hi everyone! Thank you for your thoughtful comments.
ReplyDeleteLisa, I know it's difficult but keep at it. They'll slowly see the changes happening in your life, they'll slowly come to see your changes do make a difference. Hugs and love to you.
This post really struck a cord with me today. I've been making lifestyle changes for a while now and I'm very happy but when I'm with one family member I seem to always find myself defending my way of living; sadly, some people can only judge the value of a thing in terms of money spent! I'm trying to find the words to say 'this is how I live and how you deal with it is entirely up to you' without causing too much upset! :) Thank you for another thought-provoking post - I love to feel that I have taken ownership and responsibility for my life.
ReplyDelete