Nourishment for the mind and soul....as well as the body.
If you've been following our blog posts you know that the aim of my wife Lizzie and me is to "live the good life".
This is not just about organic gardening or being self sufficient. It encompasses everything in our lives. We want to escape the greed and excesses of commercialism and capitalism.
If modern, so called, civilization continues on the path it's currently on we will destroy the world it in no time at all.
Like Mahatma Gandhi said "The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.”
It's about respecting the natural world, simplifying our lives, healthy eating, healthy habits and self sufficiency. And when I say simplifying I don't mean austerity, I mean cutting out all the clutter, waste and all unnecessary things to leave us with quality in our lives rather than quantity (and by quantity I really mean excess).
But it's also about re-adjusting our state of mind.....mellowing out (but without the drugs!), being happy and grateful for being alive and having a positive outlook toward life and our relationships with one another and anyone else, or any thing else, we interact with.
It's surprising how many like minded, positive people we have come to know in a short time by adjusting our attitude to life.
Many of these people we have met through AirBnB either on our travels or hosting in our own home.....but more on that in another post.
Personally I can say, hand on heart, that I have never been more content with my life and how I am living it, as I am right now....and Lizzie is the same. Every morning I wake up joyful and inspired.
It's about not holding on to past grievances, but letting go....forgiving anyone who has done us harm and moving on. The past is exactly that...passed. We can't change the past.
It does no good at all, worrying about the past or churning past arguments or bad experiences over and over in our minds. All that does, is to sour our minds so that we can't enjoy the sweetness of today or the promise of tomorrow. There is no point, so forgive and forget, or accept and move on.
Every one has some good in them so try to focus on the good rather than negative parts of a persons character. Relax, enjoy life.
It's also about simplifying our lives, figuring out what exactly we need to live comfortably, to keep us well nourished both in body and spirit and to work less hours (for other people), so that we can enjoy more time living simply and therefore simply living.
In order to do this we have taken little bits of information from various places and brought balance to our lives. Much like we do in our gardening methods...a little from one way of gardening a little from another way to get the right blend for our garden to thrive.... so it is with life its self.
It's been a long time coming - the realization of what our lives are all about. We're not fully there yet but are getting there slowly but surely day by day.
We still watch some TV, but are selective in what we watch. Instead of watching the idiot box all night every night, we talk to one another, have quite in depth discussions sometimes, read a lot and gather information from books and the internet.
We've read (and seen YouTube videos) about some very inspirational people, who's life experiences help put ours into perspective. These people have a glow about them - no it's not radiation! - it's a real zest for life. You can see it in their eyes and their faces and in the way they interact with other people.
I'm talking about people like Satish Kumar - (born 9 August 1936). He is an Indian born activist and editor. He has been a Jain monk, nuclear disarmament advocate, pacifist, and is the current editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. Now living in England, Kumar is founder and Director of Programmes of the Schumacher College international centre for ecological studies, and of The Small School. His most notable accomplishment is a peace walk with a companion - from India - to the capitals of four of the nuclear-armed countries – Washington, London, Paris and Moscow, a trip of over 8,000 miles - and without a cent in his pocket.
He calls himself an earth pilgrim. He insists that reverence for nature should be at the heart of every political and social debate. Defending criticism that his goals are unrealistic, he has said,
Look at what realists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale, and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell people who call me "unrealistic" to show me what their realism has done. Realism is an outdated, overplayed and wholly exaggerated concept.
Vandana Shiva ( born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, a doctor of Physics, environmental activist and anti-globalization author. Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than twenty books.
She is one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization and a figure of the global solidarity movement known as the alter-globalization movement. She has argued for the wisdom of many traditional practices, as is evident from her interview in the book Vedic Ecology (by Ranchor Prime) that draws upon India's Vedic heritage. She is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, Spain's Socialist Party's think tank. She is also a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society. She received the Right Livelihood Award in 1993, and numerous other prizes.
She has done a lot to protect the integrity of the soil and to educate people on how to care for the earth we live on.
Alice Herz-Sommer, also known as Alice Sommer (26 November 1903 – 23 February 2014), was a Prague-born Jewish pianist, music teacher, and supercentenarian who survived Theresienstadt concentration camp - a feeder camp for Auschwitz.
After the war, she lived for 40 years in Israel, before migrating to London in 1986, where she resided until her death, and at the age of 110 was one of the world's oldest known Holocaust survivors. She and her son survived the camps, her husband however did not.
Her attitude toward life and toward other people including her captors at the concentration camp was exemplary. Her joy for life and for living radiated in her smile and she kept her mind and body active and was well versed in world affairs, politics and the latest scientific discoveries.
She practiced playing the piano three hours a day until the end of her life. She kept mind and body active.
She stated that optimism was the key to her life:
"I look at the good. When you are relaxed, your body is always relaxed. When you are pessimistic, your body behaves in an unnatural way. It is up to us whether we look at the good or the bad. When you are nice to others, they are nice to you. When you give, you receive"
These are just three examples of people who's outlook on life and the way they have lived or are living their lives I personally find very inspiring.
They are all on You-Tube if you care to take a look.
As caretakers of this planet - because that is what we are - we're meant to be taking care of the planet for future generations of all forms of life, not just human life - we need to tread lightly. We don't actually need the latest electronic gadget, we don't need designer clothes or to upgrade to the latest model of car. We shouldn't feel the need to "keep up with the Jones's" nor crave the approval of anyone....particularly when gaining that approval relies on what we possess rather than what we are.
Often people put on a front in order to appease their peers, or even strangers, in order to present "the right image". But is that the real you and are you comfortable in your own skin?
From reading about the three people above they all live by the same three simple rules, which are:
Be true to yourself.
Be kind to yourself (and to others).
Live in the moment. (the past is gone, nothing you can do will alter it - the future will be along soon enough so don't worry about it - live in the now, the present and enjoy every moment).
To give perspective to our existence and to disagreements we may have, or for that matter any discord in our lives, consider this - In the great scheme of things does it really matter if you made a mistake yesterday or last week or last year? Or if someone else did something that upset you. It may in your mind seem like a major thing that went wrong, but as an individual you are currently one of over seven and a half billion people on this planet. The planet Earth is but a tiny round ball floating through space as part of the solar system. The solar system in turn is a small component in the Milky Way. Our sun, which is immense compared to the size of the Earth, is tiny compared to other stars in the Milky Way...and estimates put the total number of stars or "suns" in the Milky Way at between 100 billion to 400 billion and this is just a small component in the vastness of the universe as a whole. So does one disagreement really mean so much?
Lets face it, it's a miracle that we're here at all - so don't get all bent up on negativity.
Live, love and enjoy life.
