Simple Living Initiative-money

When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.–Native American Saying

Simplicity Collective

"Although practicing simplicity is much more than just being frugal with money and consuming less – it is also a state of mind – in a market economy spending wisely plays a central role.

In Your Money or Your Life, Dominguez and Robin provide elaborate financial exercises for readers to undertake which seek to provoke reflection on the real value of money and the real cost of things.  Such exercises may sound mundane and a bit pointless – everybody assumes they are careful, rational spenders – but if it is carried out with precision the results may well surprise, and perhaps even shock. One might find that seemingly little purchases add up to an inordinate amount over a whole year, which may raise new and important questions about whether the money might have been better spent elsewhere, not at all, or exchanged for more time by working less. Then consider how much would be spent in each category over ten years. The aim of this exercise is not to create tightwads, as such, but smart consumers who are conscious of the time/life/ecological cost of their purchases.

After all, as Thoreau would insist, ‘The cost of a thing is the amount of… life which is required to be exchanged for it.’  When exploring voluntary simplicity in this light, one might well find that some reductions and changes to spending habits, rather than inducing any sense of deprivation, will instead be life-affirming.

When it comes to spending money in accordance with the ethos of voluntary simplicity, it is also important to bear in mind Vicki Robin’s profound democratic insight: That how we spend our money is how we vote on what exists in the world.

Purchasing something sends a message, consciously or unconsciously, to the marketplace, affirming the product, its ecological impact, its process of manufacture, etc. Simple living, therefore, involves shopping as conscientiously as possible, directing one’s monetary ‘votes’ into socially and ecologically responsible avenues and boycotting irresponsible avenues.

A tension can arise here, of course, because shopping conscientiously or ‘ethically’ tends to be (but is not always) more expensive.  If it is true, however, that market expenditure is a vote on what exists in the world then it would seem that the global consumer-class has the potential to become a non-violent revolutionary class and change the world, simply by changing its spending habits.  Simplicity is the new spectre haunting capitalism. Never before have so many people had the option of casting off the chains of consumer culture, stepping out of the rat race, and living (and spending) in opposition to the existing order of things. Money is power, and with this power comes responsibility.

Consumers of the world, unite!"

The Story of STUFF

Ethics and the Consumer

Fair Trade USA

Simple Living Initiative-work

The Simplicity Collective 

"Rethinking attitudes to work is central to the way many participants in the Simplicity Movement approach simple living.

Charles Siegel poses the critical question: ‘Should we take advantage of our increasing productivity to consume more or to have more free time?’

If people keep raising their material standard of living every time they come into more money – through a pay rise, for example, or through some new technology which increases productivity per hour – working hours will never decrease and may even rise. Indeed, many Westerners, especially North Americans, Britons, and Australians, are working longer hours today than they were in the 1970s, despite being considerably more productive.

Generally speaking, they have directed all their wealth and productivity gains into consuming more and have not taken any of those gains in terms of increased free time. But why, one might ask, should people always be working for more consumer products and services and not sometimes be content with less? Why should people not accept a lower material standard of living (e.g. old clothes, smaller house, no car, no luxury travel, etc.) and work half as much? Who can say what wonders such a cultural style might not bring!

Thoreau’s opinion on working hours seems to exemplify the perspective widely held among participants in the Simplicity Movement:
'Those slight labors which afford me a livelihood, and by which it is allowed that I am to some extent serviceable to my contemporaries, are as yet commonly a pleasure to me, and I am not often reminded that they are a necessity. So far I am successful. But I foresee that if my wants should be much increased, the labor required to supply them would become a drudgery. … I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well.'

The basic idea here is that if people can embrace simple living and stop the upward creep of material desire, they can take some or all of their pay rises or productivity gains, not in terms of more consumption, but in terms of more free time. And this raises the questions: Are we forced by the ‘curse of labour’ to work so much? Or are we freer than we think we are?

The Simplicity Movement is an example of a social movement where people are enjoying the benefits of exchanging money and consumption for more free time."

Simple Living

Becoming Minimalist

The Possibility Alliance

Maybe we don't need MORE money!!

The 7 Step Path to Enjoying Work

Simple Living Initiative-food

The Simplicity Collective

"Eating locally, eating organically, eating out in moderation, eating less or no meat, eating simply, lightly, and creatively, and, as far as possible, growing one’s own fruit and vegetables – these are some of the key characteristics to food production and consumption in the lives of many simple livers.  Given some thought and a little discipline, a nutritious, environmentally sensitive diet can be obtained at a surprisingly low cost."

23 Year old Permaculture Food Forest

Liking Healthy Foods is a Choice!!

Salamander Springs Farm

Slow Food USA

Locavore Movement

Eating with the Seasons

Sustainable Agriculture

Simple Living Initiative-housing

The Simplicity Collective

"Housing (whether purchasing, building, or renting) is typically life’s greatest single expense, so simple livers must think especially carefully about where they live and why, and how much of their lives they are prepared to spend seeking a ‘nicer’ place to live.

Exactly what kind of shelter does one need to live well and to be free? Obviously, we must answer this question for ourselves – at least, within the constraints of our own socio-economic context – but again the words of Thoreau might give us a moment’s pause: ‘Most people appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbours have.’

The ‘McMansions’ which are so prevalent in the suburbs of North America and increasingly elsewhere are extremely resource-intensive and very expensive.  In opposition to that trend, participants in the Simplicity Movement are exploring alternative ways to accommodate themselves and their families, by embracing smaller, much more modest and energy-efficient homes. In particular, some are exploring co-housing arrangements, ‘green design,’ and other forms of low-impact development, including eco-villages and ‘transition initiatives.’

More radical participants are building their own straw-bail houses, making shacks out of abandoned or second-hand materials, or converting shipping containers into homes."

Family of 7 Off Grid

Living Simply Off Grid Tiny House

Off Grid In Alaska

From Finance to Farmer

Simple Living Initiative-clothing

The Simplicity Collective...Let us be pioneers once more!!
Thoreau

A Simple Year...12 months of guided simplicity!!

Project 333...Be More with LESS

UnFancy...the capsule experiment!!

The Simplicity Collective

"The historic purpose of clothing, as Thoreau pointed out, was to keep us warm and, in time, for reasons of modesty. Today its dominant purpose seems to be fashion and the conspicuous display of wealth and status. People can, of course, spend thousands and thousands of dollars on clothing, if they wish. But simple livers tend to ‘dress down,’ wearing functional, often second-hand clothing. Such clothing can be generally obtained at a minimal expense.

Dressing down, it should be noted, does not necessarily imply giving up ‘style’ or puritanically denying self-expression through what one wears. But it does seem to imply rejecting high fashion (and all its stands for) in favour of some ‘alternative’ aesthetic.  In this way, dressing down can be understood to be an outward statement of simplicity; an effort, however small, to express aesthetically one’s opposition to consumer culture.

Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent each and every year in the fashion industry.  Just imagine if even half of that money was redirected toward green energy or humanitarian initiatives. We would lose so little and gain so much.

Again, how we spend our money is how we vote on what exists in the world."

Yuletide Celebrations!!

If I could make one wish for every person on this Earth, it would be that each of us finds that path we were meant to walk. And that we walk our path quietly and allow others to walk theirs as well. It is when we try to manipulate other people's lives to meet our own specifications that we make our worst mistakes. –Irwen Nightstar


The True Origins of Christmas

The Real Story of Christmas

Celebrating YOU!!

Happy Birthday Ma Grande...my Yule Baby!!  💝Celebrating YOU today...and ALL the days of my life!! 

For your listening enjoyment today:
Into the Mystic
Salvation Song
Gone to Fortingal
Bella's Fury
Little Talks
I Will Wait for You
Like Real People Do
Ho Hey

The Great Turning–Joanna Macy

Personal Guidelines for the Great Turning

Come from Gratitude
To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe–to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it–is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don't be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, for these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. To suffer with is the literal meaning of compassion.

Dare to Vision
Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts..

Roll up your Sleeves
Many people don't get involved in the Great Turning because there are so many different issues, which seem to compete with each other. Shall I save the whales or help battered children? The truth is that all aspects of the current crisis reflect the same mistake, setting ourselves apart and using others for our gain. So to heal one aspect helps the others to heal as well. Just find what you love to work on and take joy in that. Never try to do it alone. Link up with others; you'll spark each others' ideas and sustain each others' energy..

Act your Age
Since every particle in your body goes back to the first flaring forth of space and time, you're really as old as the universe. So when you are lobbying at your congressperson's office, or visiting your local utility, or testifying at a hearing on nuclear waste, or standing up to protect an old grove of redwoods, you are doing that not out of some personal whim, but in the full authority of your 15 billions years.

Principles of Creation Spirituality

1.      The universe is fundamentally a blessing. Our relationship with the Universe fills us with awe.

2.      In Creation, God is both immanent and transcendent. This is neither theism (God out there) nor atheism (no God anywhere), but panentheism, God in all things. We experience that the Divine is in all things and all things are in the Divine.

3.      God is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as much God in mystery as the God in   history, as much beyond all words and images as in all forms and beings.  We are liberated from the need to cling to God in one form or one literal name.

4.      In our lives, it is through the work of spiritual practice that we find our deep and true selves.

Through the arts of meditation and silence we cultivate clarity of mind.

5.      Our inner work can be understood as a four-fold journey involving:

·            awe, delight, amazement (known as the Via Positiva)

·            uncertainty, darkness, suffering, letting go (Via Negativa)

·            birthing, creativity, passion (Via Creativa)

·            justice, healing, celebration (Via Transformativa)

We weave through these paths like a spiral danced, not a ladder climbed.

6.      Every one of us is a mystic.  We can enter the mystical as much through beauty (Via Positiva) as through contemplation and suffering (Via Negativa). We are born full of wonder and can recover it at any age.

7.      Every one of us is an artist.  Whatever the expression of our creativity, it is our prayer and praise. (Via Creativa).

8.      Every one of us is a prophet.  Our prophetic work is to interfere with all forms of injustice and that which interrupts authentic life (Via Transformativa).

9.      Diversity is the nature of the Universe.  We rejoice in and courageously honor the rich diversity within the Cosmos and expressed among individuals and across multiple cultures, religions and ancestral traditions.

10.      The basic work of God is compassion and we, who are all original blessings and sons and daughters of the Divine, are called to compassion.  We acknowledge our shared interdependence; we rejoice at one another’s joys and grieve at one another’s sorrows and labor to heal the causes of those sorrows.

11.      There are many wells of faith and knowledge drawing from one underground river of divine wisdom. The practice of honoring, learning and celebrating the wisdom collected from these wells is Deep Ecumenism.  We respect and embrace the wisdom and oneness that arises from the diverse wells of all the sacred traditions of the world.

12.      Ecological justice is essential for the sustainability of life on Earth.  Ecology is the local expression of cosmology and so we commit to live in light of this value: to pass on the beauty and health of creation to future generations.

The Four Paths of Creation Spirituality– a spiritual practice for communities and individuals

The backbone of the Creation Spirituality tradition is its naming of the spiritual journey in the Four Paths, which parallel the cycles of the four seasons. This tradition invites us to be participants in the circle of life—being filled with awe and wonder, feeling our pain and losses, exuding creativity, and persisting as justice makers. The Four Paths also address the question: Where will the experience of the Divine be found in our time? Creation Spirituality responds: the Divine will be found in the movement between these paths:

The Path of Awe ( the Via Positiva) — in the awe, wonder, beauty, joy, blessing and mystery of nature and all beings, each of whom is as Hildegard of Bingen put it a “word of God,” a “mirror of God that glistens and glitters.”

The Path of Release (the Via Negativa) — in the beauty of darkness and nothingness, in mystery, in the silence and emptying, in the letting go and letting be, and in the pain and suffering that constitute an equally real part of our spiritual journey.

The Path of Creativity (the Via Creativa) — in our generativity we co-create with God; we trust our images (poems, paintings, inventions, ideas for peace and justice-making, businesses, creative parenting, etc.) as divine inspiration and courageously birth them into existence.

The Path of Transformation (the Via Transformativa) — in the individual transformation made possible through practice and grace, in the relief of suffering, in the combating of injustice, and in the celebration that happens when persons struggling for justice and trying to live in mutual respect come together to praise and give thanks for the gift of life.