Home >> Voluntary Simplicity

Lately I’m imagining a huge economic pendulum swinging back in forth through time between prosperity and poverty. I have vague recollections of long gas lines when I was a kid in the 70s and hearing the words recession. My mom and I lived on the fringes and we’d visit friends who were “living on the land” or living in a 2 room apartment…basically a bunch of folks who didn’t need much to keep them happy. My mom was also one of them. She always managed to scrape by on an income generated by her artistic abilities consistently living within her means. She still lives like this, voluntarily simple. She has no idea that she’s part of a trend, it’s just the way she likes to live. My mother has never had a credit card, a car payment, or a debt that lasted longer than 6 months. She only recently bought a condo because I kept bugging her to invest in property instead of paying rent. Ironically, Paul and I are about to step away from owning property.

Tonight I did a google search on “voluntary simplicity” and found tons of books and essays. I think it’s a response and a repulsion to all that our society accumulated in the 80s and 90s. Now we are being bashed in the wallet by this giant pendulum as it swings back at us with the debt from “treasures” that we’ve gathered up for ourselves on earth, meanwhile ignoring what is most important: spending time with our kids, reaching out to our communities, volunteering, and just simply playing. Sometimes I feel like I’ve forgotten how to play. Countless times a day, Nathan comes up to me while I’m grinding away at the computer and tugs on my arm to come play or pushes a book into my lap.
“No, Nathan, Mommy has to work.
“Take the book to Miika, she’ll read it.”
or
“Go turn on the TV.
And my guilt-o-meter goes off the charts.

All the while, I’m thinking there must be a better way. I laughed at the first article I read about “voluntary simplicity.” But now, as I start to read stories about others who are feeling the same way, I’m on a mission to let go of stuff with intentionality, not just because we are moving, but for very specific reasons: to be unencumbered, to open up time, to have margins on the pages of life.

This is a journey that I’m very excited to take…hoping I don’t loose my mind along the way. This part of the trip is all uphill. I’ll let you know when I get to the top and can see clearly.

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