Karen and I spent this weekend doing some essential yardwork. We’re starting a vegetable garden, and thinking about getting some apple and cherry trees.
We didn’t think we would get this kind of time this weekend to work outdoors. On Friday, the weather reports said that the weekend would be lost to rain. We need some rain. It was supposed to start Saturday and last the rest of the weekend.
Saturday was a beautiful day, and Sunday, while a little cool, was also dry. So we got a lot more done than we thought we would.
There are many things that we enjoy today, here at the pinnacle of modern technological civilization. And some things that are not… well, enjoyable. Every so often, I might say to Karen, “that’s something I won’t miss,” or “I’ll miss that.”
Twenty-first century weather reports are still, for all of our technological advances, hit or miss. I don’t think I will miss them.
Happy is England! I could be content
To see no other verdure than its own;
To feel no other breezes than are blown
Through its tall woods with high romances blent;
Yet do I sometimes feel a languishment
For skies Italian, and an inward groan
To sit upon an Alp as on a throne,
And half forget what world or worldling meant.
Happy is England, sweet her artless daughters;
Enough their simple loveliness for me,
Enough their whitest arms in silence clinging;
Yet do I often warmly burn to see
Beauties of deeper glance, and hear their singing,
And float with them about the summer waters.
Poem by John Keats
I would miss not being able to fly and see the people I love.
Family and friends, all of us together. From here to there and there to here. Thats what I would miss.
Hopefully not anytime in the near future, I will miss the new novels, poems, the written words from around the world at my fingertips from Borders, Amazon.com., the Internet, or the corner drug store. I will then have to rely on the local talents of those around me
Where does my time go………I am done with my day at work, still have more to do but that can hopefully wait till later tonight…………now I have kids to pick-up from school, cook dinner, feed the kids, catch up with their day and prepare them for bed and then have dinner-probably alone, as husband works long hours!!………….does this sound familiar……….frankly it makes me feel like a modern day slave to time!!
I hardly watch television, hate cell phones, easily get annoyed at myself and others for the annoying habit and “need” for checking email, having gadgets for “staying in touch”…….at the cost of having losing touch with our own selves. I wonder if we have really made advancement with technology.
Inspired by a book titled “SLOW” on this exact day last year I made up my mind to make a deliberate effort to give up this life of “sophisticated slavery” and attempting to live for what is critically essential to me and my small family. I really put “less is more” to practice- the good news is that I not only “survived” but now thrive on it!!
I changed jobs to earn less but have more time for family……..no new shoes or clothes, reduced my commute and not to mention saved some money on gasoline for the car!!
In the past year I was able to make small changes that made a big difference and allowed me to once again become “the” person I had always imagined I would be …………well this is work in progress but a year later, I am now ready to take the “less is more” philosophy to the next level……and I am very confident that my list of things that I will miss will only get shorter.
Folks who know me well will agree that for now ice-cream will be on my list of things I will miss!!………one of the reasons why I had a big scoop of it today……even though it was wet and miserable outside but who cares……..maybe I will take ice-cream off my list of things I will miss next year!!
I am slowly trying to shrink my carbon footprint. Very slowly maybe, but trying. I replaced my Jeep Cherokee with a Jeep Patriot to get better gas mileage (need/want that 4 wheel drive to get around in these New England winters). Try to combine errands so as to save on gas. I use light bulbs that last longer. Replaced my old washer and dryer with Energy Star front loaders. Wait until my dishwasher is totally full before I start it. Take shorter showers…sort of. Recycle papers and bottles. Watch less TV, except for “Lost” of course. Soon will be growing some of my own food and starting a compost pile. Looked into solar power for my home but it seems it will take 10 years to recuperate the money spent so I am not so sure about that just yet. Will never, NEVER buy into carbon offsetting (what a truly ridiculous idea)!
But anyway, it just all seems… not enough. I have recently connected with a cousin in Nova Scotia I never knew I had. She seems such a pioneer. At 70, she has a cabin that is totally run on solar energy, a compost toilet, and recently gave up the hand pump outside for a solar pump that delivers her water inside. Wow! Now she would be ready for almost anything or lack of anything I should say.
Part of me is in denial. I have been called the “Queen of Denial” once or twice. Who really wants to believe life as we have known it could possibly change radically in the near future. I was at Costco today and walked by a woman asking where the rice was. The store clerk told her they were all sold out except for Basmati. What country am I living in? Oil shortages, food shortages? This is just crazy talk! I keep waiting for the stock market to show it’s horns again, for housing prices to right itself (actually I guess it already did). For life as I know it to continue.
Some changes I long for. A return to a more simplistic lifestyle with more physical exertion and a deeper shared experience with my family. Some changes leave me cold all over. What, I can’t take a ten minute drive into town for a six pack of Mike’s Hard Cranberry Lemonade…I have to brew my own! OK, my brain hurts with the potential losses.