Wednesday, December 28, 2011

do with less



Again i think that is not necessarily a bad thing. We might find out in delight, what treasure that beholds.

Over Christmas i skyped with my cousin Gerda, and i just got a wonderful email from another cousin. (you find Gerda on my blog list at Le Vertige)

Both were talking about what i am trying to talk about. Gerda mention how it is amazing how little her new life style really costs, how they live on little money very happily.
She and her partner decided to move from their both busy jobs, living in a buy city in Holland to a remote place in French. The choice was actually, to change life were they have more time together. She said all that came from it is what they have now, and they are loving it.
The other cousin is coming to it in a different way. It is just that there is less for her husband and her, and she too seems to be very content with that.

And i.... ahh i, i am so much more complicated than other people appear to be :)
I just live this life of freedom, and it comes cheap.
But often i am stuck in it somehow, knee deep in mud (that is actually tomorrow's story:)

But i do realize, more clearly than i like, that whatever i would change ,if i would run off to NY or LA, i would still be me.

No matter what, where or how, there is me, and that is a glorious thing actually.

3 comments:

christopher said...

Jozien, I understand. Here is me praying that the "big needs" leave you alone to wander along the simpler roads you choose. Life does tend to match us as we choose but there are few guarantees in it.

Loving you the whole of 2011, hoping to continue in 2012.

We can skype perhaps sometime.

Anonymous said...

I have been living with less for awhile. No busy job or deadlines that have to be achieved. It has been a very comfortable existence, although there is a little nagging concern about paying taxes and unanticipated changes to the newly adopted lifestyle.

More time to build feeders and have my spirit lifted by the call of a chicadee. I love hearing the sound of the creek flowing and observing the many changes that occur over the course of the boreal seasons.

My current philosopy is to slow down and enjoy a simple but eloquent "do with less" lifestyle. Too many people leave it too late and their material assets, careers, and long service pensions are not enough to keep ill health at bay.

Someone once gave me a test where you wrote down names in response to questions and the relevance was explained later. I was so surprised to learn that someone had manipulated innoculous questions which told you who you loved. |You of course know- but maybe its not common knowledge. However suddently saying the person in the answer to question 5 is the one you are in love with is very profound. Most people lead lives of quiet desperation because of a profound need for love- have actually forgotten who said that.

More time to think about life and love when practicing a "do with less" lifestyle and hopefully, in the the flash of the moment or perhaps infinitely longer, share special moments with special people.

HDT

J Dowell-Irvine said...

Hi Jozien;
I also understand, some things are not easy to articulate. I was out at Magundy with my husband today and he was reading to me from Carlos Castaneda about a concept called controlled folly. Very deep but it smacks of the same thing you are alluding to here or so I think. The concept is that "nothing matters" . Now of course everyone says "oh this is so wrong!" But really all that matters is that we choose a path with heart and we have the awareness to see it doesn't matter really what we do " I am an artist" but I do not hold onto this identity too tightly" because it really doesn't matter if I am or not Why do I paint a 100 paintings - because I feel like it - What will come of it - I don't know (that's ok with me) ! But the key is to be conscious and aware and fully-present. Sometimes the circumstances are wonderful and sometimes awful. So just to sound a little more confusing - I feel our paths are always changing and what worked a few years ago may not work now and to just go with it. My life is anything but simple right now what with 3 teens and living in town when I would rather live minimally at our acreage on the Magundy but I accept and embrace this path right now with my whole heart until it's time to let it go again. LA, New York - The Yukon it's all the same - Controlled folly.
- I love your sharing and I really love Thoreau too! Now I better go do my painting.