the simple life

Celebrating Autumn

/ inkspeare / 9 Comments
Vineyard in Napa Valley

Image via Wikipedia

I love Autumn; it is my favorite season.  So much happens during this time.  Nature becomes a changing painting.  Around mid September, I start preparing to welcome the Fall.  I try to enjoy this season to the max as it is also a prelude to another favorite – Winter.  Most likely, during fall, you will find me doing these activities, some of which I will not be able to do to total contentment this year, since I am in transition to move to VA.  However, I will certainly enjoy as many as I can.

Candles – I start by buying scented candle jars to welcome the season.  Some of my favorites are pumpkin spice, spiced apple, cinnamon spice, vanilla, gingerbread, maple pecan … and other scents.  At the end of fall I make sure that I have a pine or evergreen and cedar scent to welcome Winter.

I also give a good fall cleaning to the house to get it ready for the joyous season.  After that, the home is ready for decorating.  I like to decorate using a natural approach.  Many of the things will be handmade and using natural materials such as leaves, twigs, branches …  Many of these items can be tweaked for the winter, and later on recycled into mulch.  The organic feel is perfect for the season and conveys a warmth and coziness.  The outside decor follows the same approach.  I use some recycled vintage items as well.

Since the weather will be changing, so does the wardrobe.  I enjoy cleaning up closets and getting ready the outfits for the season.  Even hubby’s closet gets the Autumn treatment.  I love to play with fabrics and colors.

I enjoy the no A/C season and take advantage of it by opening all the windows to let the crisp air inside. The cats love it too. Their beds also get the autumn treatment, and get their heavy blankets on.

During this time, I celebrate by enjoying the quiet of the woods and parks.  We take walks, and love the smells of nature – wet leaves that are starting to decompose, the moisture in the air, as well as the crisp air of the season.  The sound of crunching leaves as you walk, the wind, and the scenery that slowly paints itself in nature – a palette of unique colors.  This is the perfect time to pick up fallen leaves and branches to use in the decor.  This is also beach time for me, as I enjoy the beach during fall, not during the summer.  It is not crowded and it is quiet, and the weather is better.  So there are many beach walks during this time.

One of my favorite rituals is to prepare for Halloween; I love the holiday.  In our neighborhood, we get tons of trick or treaters and I enjoy preparing colorful candy bags to give away to the kids.  I love to sit outside with a bucket full of bags while watching the parade of cute costumes.  I pick a favorite costume as a mental exercise.  I prepare 80-100 little bags and most of them go.  Sometimes, my neighbor will have a Halloween bash and most of the traffic will come to our street.  Their home is decorated with all kinds of spooks, smoke, sounds, and moving creatures … Last year two local rock bands played – this is also a treat, and I have grown accustomed to it over the years.  I will certainly miss it once we move.

Finally, I make sure I have some of my favorite treats on hand – the pumpkin or apple pie, hot chocolate, ginger tea, pumpkin spice creamer, cinnamon bun creamer, and the rarely found coconut creamer, mini marshmallows,  and my favorite – the tiny candy corn and pumpkin candy.  These treats make me happy.

And this is how I celebrate Autumn.

When the Cows Come Home

/ inkspeare

We all have heard the popular phrase “till the cows come home,” referring to a long and indefinite period of time.  “I will party till the cows come home” is a good example of it.  However, what happens when the cows come home?  And if they do, are we prepared to receive them?  I have asked myself that question many times, and the answer is always the same – I’ll never know until I see them.

Preparing for life changes can be exciting, exhilarating, scary, and many other things; however, we won’t know until the cows come home.  We continue with our plans of leaving Jersey and moving to the country.  Although we are preparing for it, and are excited … we won’t know until the cows come home.  For now, all we can do is wait for them, and prepare for their arrival.  In a way, it is good that things happen a bit slow, it gives you time to appreciate the road, the roses, the thorns, and yes, it gives you time to wait for those cows.

Picture taken on our way to the farmhouse.  I guess some cows where having second thoughts and heading back.

Sustainability – Reduce – Reuse – Repurpose – Recycle

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We are making a conscientious attempt to become greener and utilize the planet’s resources responsibly.  Each individual is responsible for doing his/her part as best he/she can to help save and preserve this beautiful planet.  Every little counts, from buying products in environmentally friendly packaging to growing some veggies in your backyard.  By reducing our daily waste we contribute a lot to being responsible Earth citizens and become an important part in sustainability efforts.  Reducing waste should be our primary goal, followed by reusing items as best as we can.  We can give a second life to objects, we can think twice before putting something in the trash in order to use it in a different way or alter it on another form and for another purpose.  This takes us to the issue of repurposing.  When we repurpose items we help the environment as well.  We reduce our waste and we give a second chance to items which would end up in a landfill somewhere.  when we want to dispose of items we should recycle them as well as we can, by following our city’s recycling programs and doing as best as we can to keep these things out of a landfill.

Many items such as plastic items, glass items will end up as new products, companies will save money in the manufacturing process, and the economy will benefit from it as well.  This is how we affect a cycle, we are an important part in every sense of our existence in this planet.

A great example to illustrate this method is buying eggs.  Depending on where you live, you can either:

  • get your own eggs by raising chickens,
  • buy your eggs from a farm, reducing packaging waste,
  • buy the eggs at a grocery store, but choosing eggs in a cardboard container instead of the Styrofoam containers,
  • reusing the cardboard container to grow seeds for your vegetables,
  • last, recycle the cardboard container in the garbage, as appropriate in your town.

By using our imagination, we can turn used items into something else.  We can be innovative in our everyday living by following this method – reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle.

Simple Abundance – Always a Great Read

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More than a decade has gone by since the book Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach came out and became a bestseller. I had this book sitting in my library for almost two years and recently I got to read it.  I loved it!  The principles on this book are true now more than ever.  Eddie and I have embarked in a journey to live the simple life and this book, although written with a feminine point of reference, is a source of inspiration, as many of the principles apply to men as well.  

Many families and individuals are simplifying their way of living, for many, this way of thinking has come after the effects of the current economy;for others, it has been brewing for quite some time. In a way, living the simple life is living mindfully, and has nothing to do with economic status.  Rich or Poor, both can live the simple abundance life, as it is more about spiritual connection and appreciation of the everyday blessings.

The Simple Life – Focusing on What’s Truly Important

/ inkspeare

Years ago, I went to an outside flea market and an old framed print caught my attention.  It was on a table, amongst many other better items, and not even showing much.  The price was $5.00.  I pondered for a few minutes and decided not to buy it, a few seconds later, after I started walking, I turned back and bought it.  I have it hanging on the second floor wall and as I go up and down the stairs I glance at it.

The old picture frame is in very shabby condition, with scratches in the wood, and the paper that used to cover the back (like in the old way of framing) is gone.  It has an old and rusty twisted wire attached with some screws in the back, and the poor thing looks like it has seen better days long time ago.  However, the print on the inside is covered by the intact and in great shape heavy glass and is in very good condition.

The print is called “When Daddy’s Ship Comes Home” by Bernard Pothast.  It shows a very poor family admiring a toy that the Dad brought home from one of his trips.  What captivates me about this picture is the few items that the home has, only the most essential things, and very few, limited to the table and chairs where they are sitting and a spoon rack with 3 spoons on it.  Now, there seems to be four people in this family, the mother, two kids, and the Father, who obviously is mostly at sea.  But things in this house come in three.  The well behaved kids, mesmerized by the object that the Dad is showing them also captures my attention, as so is the attention that this family is giving to the bread winner of the home.  They have so little, they are so poor, but yet they manage to focus on what it is important at the moment – Dad is home.
Dad may have decided to bring other type of item, a necessary item, maybe another spoon, or another piece of furniture,or even a big turkey – however, he managed to bring something that the kids would be mesmerized with, and will remember.  He was making the best of his stay with the kids, until his ship sails again.

It is obvious why this picture speaks tons of words by just looking at it, it is so simple, yet says so much.  For me the message is “to live simply and focus on what is truly important.”

Here is a picture of the scene.

Living the Simple Life

/ inkspeare

Learning to live the simple life is more than pairing down some of your stuff.  Although it starts at that point, it develops into a spiritual quest, and appreciation of what every day brings.  Most people think that living simple is living without; this is not the case.  You might start clearing out things that you don’t need or feel are necessary for your happiness and daily comforts of living, but soon you start realizing all the blessings you have, and all the money you wasted in so much extra stuff that was far from being needed.  That is not to say that you turn into an extreme cheap and frugal person; it is far from that.  You will learn to be frugal, but out of not being wasteful and out of gratitude for the blessings in your life; it is more like a natural state of frugality, and not imposed by the lack of something.  You learn to be frugal because you recognize the abundance in your life.  This is hardly being cheap.  At the same time you will want to give more to others, and this is not being cheap either.
Living the simple life is surrounding your environment with healthy and simple things that have a functionality, as well as a purpose.  You also like and love these few things.  It is returning to simple forms and appreciating the job that these objects do.

For decorating the farmhouse, we will use the necessary furniture that we already have, and we are getting rid of extras.  We will choose simple materials, basic in form and purpose.  Some of these we already have, some we will scout for at a bargain price or recycled.  It will depend on what we need and when – and availability.

We have decided to forgo the central air or air conditioning which we have grown so accustomed to and instead, learn to open the windows, and use ceiling fans in some rooms for when it gets too hot.  We have selected a basic white ceiling fan with one center light.  We also selected a simple design portch light made of aluminum, that will last for many years.  The total cost for these two portch lights and two ceiling fans was $80.00.  Before buying them, I scouted around for these items to see if I could get them for free, but most fans available were too big or required four or more bulbs.  Since these were 19.99 a piece it was worth it to get them brand new plus it served the purpose in form, design, and simplicity.  The lighting could not be more simple and durable too.

Here are some pics.

Simple Aluminum Portch light
Simple one bulb four-blade ceiling fan
My advice here is that you try to find what you need – free first or recycled – and give it a second life, but if you cannot find it, then go with something simple at a reasonable price.  There is no sense in getting something for free if it does not serve the purpose.  I could have gotten many ceiling fans for free but they were either too big or had too many light bulbs, a waste in my opinion.  If you can wait for it to materialize in the future that is fine too, we are doing things in stages, so we decided to fit them in now.
Living simple is about saving money, but also about less excess, and the right form and function for the purpose.  And of course, loving it too.

   

Flipping the Switch

/ inkspeare

Starting to live a simple life has not been easy.  Mostly, because it has been a slow process and one that has been the result of some good and not so good events.  It has been ticking, and finally the pieces are starting to fall in place, slowly, one by one.  It is a process of shedding, not only the material, but of the feelings attached to those material things.  It’s been a time to shed emotions, and of retrospection; a time of discovery, and of realization.  It has also been a time to do just the opposite of what had been expected and go against the current, of letting go.  That has been the spiritual side of it, although the material part has had its own challenges.  

Once you see the material for what it is, it becomes less important, little by little, step by step.  What used to be hard to get rid of, one day becomes easy, the feelings attached are still there, but you realize that the feelings will always be there, and they don’t need the physicality of an object to be brought to memory.  Most of it is crap, from shoppaholic days, or the result of some old empty void being filled at the time.  Once acknowledged, it is free to let go, and so is all the stuff that goes with it.

There are catalysts in our lives that act as switches, to turn us on to achieve our next level as evolving human and spiritual beings.  These catalysts can take the form of persons (even the ones that may hurt you), events, and things.  So however we have arrived to the start of living a simple life – I thank the persons (good and bad), the events, and the things, which have made it possible.  

Once the switch has been flipped, the rest of our life – the simple life – follows.

Flip the Switch