The simple life

[glend (Glen)]

Originally Posted by rogerg

Unfortunately I'm some time off being financially able to give up my day job and move to a remote bush block.

Andrew perhaps the chaos of your children forces you to exclude other activities and chaos from your life just to keep up with them? And so thereby not being any more or less chaotic than someone who fills their life with other dramas .... My theory is that everyone has a limit and they "fill up" to that limit throughout life but just through different activities.

Many people fill up their lives with busy activities that have little or no real meaing or value and much of this is self-inflicted. It can take some a major scare or life change to break free of the 'noise' of our lives and distill it down to the nucleous of value.

I left the rat race three years ago and do not miss any of my former working life business or busy-ness. There is the famous saying regarding death bed realisations - that 'no one ever wishes they had spent more time at work and less with the family'. Distill your life to what's important and ignore the rest.

[Octane (Humayun)]

I used to enjoy going on my landscape photography trips, shoot weddings, portraits, and enjoy reading web sites.

That all changed once I got married earlier this year. Now, I've got two stepchildren and a mortgage. I spend over 3 hours a day on a train to-and-from work and it's doing my head in. I haven't picked my camera up since March to do anything meaningful with it. Although I had automated my backyard observatory, I felt guilty with all the time I was spending in front of the computer doing the processing. The poor wife was so understanding, but, I just felt so guilty that I wasn't spending enough time with her.

I've resigned myself to a simple life now. Especially after the news of my camera is going to cost me $3,600 US to get the sensor replaced.

Can't wait to move back to Canberra in the new year. At least I won't be wasting 3+ hours a day commuting.

But, yes, I am like you, I just have no time for anything anymore.

H

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Living the dream sounds like a great thing. Having kids (teenagers especially) adds a different dimension to this. i also like to engage with the world we live in and I hopefully make a difference.
Today I have just learnt today that submissions I have made to the EIS on a proposed $8Billion dollar development in our region (FNQ) have been incorporated into the plan.
Staying involved in this way is a worthwhile thing I believe !
This could make the difference between a development that destroys our night sky and one that offers our international visitors an experience of the night sky they will never have in their own country.

[el_draco (Rom)]

This little article makes for really good reading. Sums up my position pretty well and I suspect, we get no choice in the matter....

http://theconversation.com/the-simpl...ld%20save%20us

[xelasnave]

Indeed interesting ROM.
However the market economy rules and the alternative seems not to work.
On paper communism seemed the answer but add humans to the system and it too suffered similar ills to the market system.
Greed at the top is common to both systems and I don't know how one can change that.
I enjoy being frugal free from a desire for more stuff and bigger dinners.
But so many humans rank their worth by having more rather than less.
Many select their house, car and clothes to impress others rather than take care of their realistic needs.
Mind you I have lived that way when young but in reflection to recognise such is now an embarrassment.
Nevertheless it may be greed that saved us for the wealthy will see to it that their life style remains even at the expense of the majority of others.
As resources deplete I can not imagine they will suffer.

[Kunama]

I have a simple life, I get up each morning to be greeted by my beautiful wife and my faithful German Shepherd & Sheltie, I make my coffee .....

then it is decision time........ will I do a bit around the garden or go and see my granddaughter (now 5mths old) ......... oh well the garden will wait.....
Seeing little Eliana's excited smile each time tells me life is great .....

Everything else has been the necessary evils of life that have put me in a position to do this .......

Like most of us I like to have nice things, not to impress others, just for me to enjoy......

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Kunama

I have a simple life, I get up each morning to be greeted by my beautiful wife and my faithful German Shepherd & Sheltie, I make my coffee .....

then it is decision time........ will I do a bit around the garden or go and see my granddaughter (now 5mths old) ......... oh well the garden will wait.....
Seeing little Eliana's excited smile each time tells me life is great .....

Everything else has been the necessary evils of life that have put me in a position to do this .......

Like most of us I like to have nice things, not to impress others, just for me to enjoy......

Sounds like a plan Matt.

[el_draco (Rom)]

An unavoidable reality check:
"Our supreme goal is economic growth, but few people seem to recognise the absurdly impossible implications.If the expected 9 billion people were to enjoy the ”living standards” forecast for Australians by 2050 (assuming 3% yearly economic growth), the world’s total consumption would be about 30 times as much as it is now."

No Choice.... We will change and it will come through vested self-interest I suspect. How it progresses will be interesting. If economics drives it we will need to get closer to oblivion I think but many people are rapidly becoming jaded with the "gotta have it" mentality; sick of eating supermarket crap and having to work 24/7 to maintain the delusion...

I guess I am becoming an experiment in that regard but I know plenty of others who have done it already. Interesting times.