When the Simple Life Ain't So Simple

When embarking on the journey to a "simpler" lifestyle, so many people (ourselves included) innocently believe that simple will equate to simple.

Not so.

Perhaps a more accurate word would be a "basic" lifestyle, because we are embracing the basics of life: homegrown food, wood heat, line-dried clothes; however it is anything but simple . . . especially when one moves onto the property in September with no wood stockpiled and winter fast approaching. Let me just say that now we are spending every weekend in the woods to get enough logs for the coming week. We have about two weeks stored up, and it's not from any lack of trying -- it's just that we have been so busy with work, school, and a toddler that we weren't able to get a whole winter's worth of wood in the three months (give or take) that we had before cold hit. It's not a bad thing, for it's work that we enjoy.

Work means something altogether different when it brings a true sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Out here, we are growing as people because we are becoming more aware of what life truly is at the basic level -- hence, the "basic" lifestyle. Now, work truly equates to heat and food rather than cold lifeless money that can buy those things. I love it, and - so help me, God - I'll never go back to living in town again.