Here’s a reflective piece on simple living by a woman who is doing it. — Zana

The Art of Simple Living

By Tiffany Washko

Simple living is the way an individual chooses to enjoy life in the simplest form possible without the comforts often found in high technological materials and wealth. The art of simple living may be described as living in a way that is outwardly simpler and inwardly richer; focusing more on the richness of the world’s natural resources rather than on the material things that often clutter our life. Read the rest >>>

Mahatma Gandhi, Image via Wikipedia

Live simply that others may simply live. This statement, attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, provides the reason for simplifying our lives. Everything we buy has an environmental and human price tag. If I buy a pair of shoes, for example, they are made from a variety of materials that came from somewhere. People manufactured the shoes, perhaps in substandard working conditions. There may have been toxic waste from the factory. The shoes were transported, quite possibly from overseas, to a store or website where I found them.

If I need those shoes, that’s just how it works, but if I don’t really need them, then I am placing an undue burden on others.

The argument is often made that it is our duty as consumers to go out and buy things whether or not we really need them. This is supposed to help get the economy back on track. We hear variations of this concept everywhere; the idea that economic growth is essential turns up in the news constantly. But the assumption behind this way of thinking is that we live in a world of unlimited natural resources. Read the rest >>>

Recently I found myself at Zen Habits because I had come across a link to an excellent article on the site,  Simple Living  Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life. It’s a guide to getting rid of what is less important to you in your life, so you can concentrate on what you really care about. That could be anything… the article is full of suggestions like decluttering, simplifying work and home tasks, eliminating the clothes you don’t wear, and so on. There are actually 72 ideas on the list, and many of them have links to other articles of his and other websites around the web.

So I lost myself in all that for a while.  I always love reading simple living tips from other people… I get more ideas that way. Think I will finally give away some of the cotton-polyester clothing in my closet that I wear about once a year, since I really prefer natural fibers.

Back to Zen Habits… There is so much there, that I was delighted to find Start Here on Leo Babauta’sminimalist Zen- style menu… that link takes you to the Beginner’s Guide to Zen Habits – A Guided Tour.  Here is part of it:

The All-Time Most Popular Posts on Zen Habits Read the rest >>>

My husband Kelly heard about The Audacity of Simplicity and passed news of it on to me. I didn’t want to wait till I had read it to get the word out about it…looks very timely and got good reviews. Here’s a bit about it:

Read the rest >>>

Back when the Voluntary Simplicity movement got started — that link takes you to the book of that name — I noticed that simple living was often complex. Here are some examples:

• It’s way more work to make your own bread by hand than to buy a good whole grain loaf from a bakery or grocery store. (Now, with bread machines, this is less true!)
• It’s more time consuming to recycle… happily, this is less true now, but it certainly was then, when we had to drive our stuff to a recycling center that was only open on Saturdays.
• Shopping for all-cotton clothes and sheets may take more time than grabbing some part-synthetic items off the shelves. Read the rest >>>

I first bought the massive Encyclopedia of Country Living, by Carla Emery, over ten years ago. I kept it by my bedside for late-night reading because there was no pesky plot to keep me awake. I found it written in an enjoyable style, with lots of sections I wanted to read. I’ve cooked many recipes from it and several have become favorites. The title  is a bit misleading: this is not just a book for people living in the country, as anyone interested in simple living will find a lot of interest in the book. Read the rest >>>