Live Simply, Consciously, and Deliberately
Live Simply, Consciously, and Deliberately
When I woke this morning and began my daily task, I began thinking on simplicity and what it really means to “Live Simply”. When you look back over time, when folks really did live a simple life they had only what they needed to survive. Simple food, simple clothing, and simple homes. Anything other than the bare necessities were considered luxuries. Today, what were luxuries for them are considered ‘needed items’ to us now. some are because times have changed, and so has technology. So, many items are now ‘needed’ items. I have simplified my life so much over the past 10 years, and I wouldn’t change a thing. Homesteading has shown us a whole different way of living. A simpler more sustainable way of life.
Letting go or getting rid of ‘stuff’ isn’t all there is to simplifying ones life. Sometimes it’s letting go of a way of thinking; a habit, a grudge, and replacing them with new ways of thinking. It’s accepting who you are and where you are in your own life. When we accept who we are, and where we are in life and have a vision of where we are going, the rest is simple. Just keep your eye on the goal. When you are looking to your own goal, you will not have time to look around and be all depressed, scared and worried. You will be consciously and deliberately working towards the goals set before you.
When we “live consciously”, we make a concerted effort to know our goals and work to achieve them. That doesn’t mean we are out building a fence everyday, it means we are consciously doing things for our families and ourselves to make our lives simpler, cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable. If you have a compost bin and you add to it daily you are consciously changing some part of the environment in which you live to make like better in some small way. We become aware of this. I feel we become happier and healthier people when we become aware of our own journey in life. When we accept it, we have a greater inner peace.
When we “live deliberately’, we are very aware of what we are doing and why we are doing it. We weigh the pros and cons of our actions. When trying to attain our goals, we must work deliberately, steady and carefully, thinking through our next step. You carefully weigh each decision and how it will affect the next step in your journey. We must do this with not only adding critters to our farms/homesteads, but with our prep purchases as well. We will become keenly aware of how each thing we do affects the next thing, and the next thing, and so on.
For instance, you wanna begin pantry stocking. Some would rush out and buy all kinds grains, freeze-dried foods, canned foods etc. just because they read somewhere they should. Then find out you cannot or will not use it. This is irresponsible and not a good financial decision. You should first sit down and think about your family’s likes, dislikes, financial situation, storage situation, what it is you are stocking up for, and how long you want that food to last. You know you want food that will help you survive and sustain you in a crisis. That’s “simple”. So now you need to make a “conscious” effort to plan it all out according to your family’s needs, wants, likes and dislikes, and lastly you “deliberately” make the plan happen. Maybe not over night, but over time,you make steady strides, you know the goal, you know the reason, and you have a plan to get there.
Each of us is on a personal homesteading journey. Mine will not be yours, yours will not be mine, but each of us can begin looking at our lives and decide that we are going to “Live Simply”, “Live Consciously”, and “Live Deliberately” while enjoying this wonderful homesteading life.
(Live Simply, Live Consciously, Live Deliberately phrase coined by Simplewoman)
Author: The Homestead Lady as originally written on APN
