January 18 - The Campfire Trail - Week 173 - I Just Want A Simple Life

January 18, 2025

Day 1,205 of the Adventure

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This past week, I've been a little focused on, or some may say "obsessed by" the concept of a "Simple Life". Define what it means to live a "Simple Life"! For every 100 people that does this, there will probably be 100 different answers. That's okay because the desire to live simple is really defined by each of us according to our own dreams, and aspirations. It's made up of things that cause peace and harmony in life. It's also partly defined by the avoidance of things that are sources of stress and anxiety. To me, a couple of the big ones were always the dread of a Monday morning alarm clock. It would signal the end of a weekend escape from a mundane routine and the need to get back to work. Please understand. work, in and of itself, has never bothered me. I actually enjoy work as long as it fits my dreams and passions. The work that I'm referring to was that related to simply performing tasks of someone else's design and purpose. I learned early on from part time factory work while in high school that mindless and repetitive labor would never fit my spirit. Later on, as an adult, working a job with challenging problems to solve in fabrication appealed to a portion of my psyche. Yet it fell short in that it challenged me in areas of things I was not really interested in. It all lead to a monotonous journey of existence. If the opposite of simple is complex, I'm not sure how any of what I described is the definition of complex. Still, it certainly led to a complexity of mind when it came to reconciling the desire to pursue things of interest, ie; "my dreams" vs my reality. 

I believe our minds attempt to push us in directions of what we think we need to do in order to achieve what we think we want. Therein lies the "Complexity" in life. We often find ourselves pushing in one direction, even though in our minds, many times, we see the pathway leading us further and further away from our life goals. In time, we can potentially even find ourselves on a seemingly in-correctable course that is not possible to turn around. When this happens, we may find ourselves sitting on a hillside somewhere, staring at a sunset, or on a beach looking at the ocean thinking to ourselves, "I just want a simple life". Indeed, we may not be seeking "simple" as much as we are seeking peace and contentment in our journey. In that moment, we are subconsciously saying, I'm willing to resort to simple living if it means I can live my life according to my dreams and on my terms. Since we feel that the achievement of our dreams is usually associated with a financial security in order to possess those dreams, a complexity arises. Can I afford to find a way without the need for the financial security to off-set my fears of what could happen should the worse-case scenario occur? I believe it is at this point where all of the ingredients of the decision are present. The three options are, leap forward, stand still or retreat. Do we move forward into our life which is in harmony with our passions? Do we retreat back to the security of our steady income and steady routine? Do we continue to stand on the precipice, unwilling to commit to either and simply remain miserable?

I've stood in that place at different times and have taken all three courses of action. I've gone back to my routine that I hated. I've stood in limbo, trying to muster the courage to pursue my "simple life" dream. Finaly, I've also stepped off into the unknown and chosen a slower, less complicated life of a cabin in the woods. There are days when I cut and split wood most of the day. Sometimes I'll work in the garden in the morning and then relax in a chair, coffee in hand staring into the deep woods. Sometimes I piddle with little projects in my tool room. Other times, we're busy building some part of the house we are working on. Some of it's easy, some is not. One thing for sure is that so far, it's all been things that line up with our passion for a "Simple Life".

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Follow your dreams. I am not saying it’s going to be easy, but I am saying it’s going to be worth it. – Moffat Machingura

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