Within these walls, good things happen

Yesterday I received a small number of The Simple Home books that I'm happy to sign and send out around Australia.  The cost of the book is $45, postage in Australia is $15. I can't send them out before the publication date - 1 March so they'll be sent next Friday and delivered the following week. Delivery takes between 3 - 7 days. Seven days being the time needed for delivery to Tasmania and WA. Please send me an email if you'd like to order a book. I also have a small number of Down to Earth and am happy to sign them and post those out too. The price is the same as The Simple Home - $45 + $15 anywhere in Australia.

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Last week I started a thread on the forum asking the question: "Why do you live a simple life?" Some wonderful posts appeared there revealing mid-life changes, growing up without mod cons, finding happiness and contentment and discovering a feeling of security and control, all while living a simpler life. I love that thread, and the forum in general, because it provides the opportunity to not only live our practical lives, collect recipes and ideas and discuss what we need to learn, but to also think about why we do it and what we gain from it. Often when we're working at home or out in the world, we forget that thinking about life, and talking about it out loud or online, helps us understand it. Regular reflection helps us gather our thoughts, make plans, realise we're not alone, remember why we started living this way and be grateful for everything we get from it. In the longer term, that helps maintain your mindset.

Late summer raspberries in the backyard, as sweet as any raspberry dares to be.

There's not much growing in the garden except herbs, chillies, rosellas and all those raspberries.

As I read through that thread there was a common theme that stood out to me - control. Many people wrote about being caught up in mainstream life - in debt, busy and stressed, with a common feeling of dissatisfaction. That turned around simply by taking control, slowing down, focusing of self and family and working towarks a values-driven life instead of a materialistic one. It doesn't take much.

Control is one of the biggest benefits for me too. I doubt I'd make a good cleaner, waitress, seamstress, cook, soap maker, gardener or child minder if I did it for a living. However, when I do those things for the love of it, when I do it for my family and myself, I feel the control I have over my own life. I never felt that control when I worked for a living. I felt obliged then, inadequate, and sometimes out of control. I felt that happiness was always out of reach and that I would never earn enough money to buy what I needed. There was a lingering dissatisfaction with life that was difficult to understand or get rid of.

 

But now, within theses fences and walls, good things happen. We eat when we want to, plan things we want to do, enjoy our days, work and rest when we feel like it and we recreate this beautiful life every day. It doesn't take much, just the work to produce what we need and want and the mindset to keep going. We've developed frugal habits and we're steady and prudent, but occasionally we spontaneously combust with happiness when we learn something important or do something unusual. Days pass, people visit and phone us, meals are cooked, cups of tea are taken outside, clothes are mended, jars and bottles recycled and all the while I think about what I'm doing, and why. I wish I could bottle the day I decided to change my life and give it away as a free sample because no matter what day it is, I thank my lucky stars that I am where I am, doing what I love.

Why do you live your simple life?