Pursing the simple life (Patreon)

The last few weeks have been intense as we have company coming in a week and a half and our house has not been fit for company since my father-in-law died. It has looked more like an Ebay warehouse than a home. While it's been pretty stressful living in such a chaotic space, the money has given me some much, much needed space to think about what I really want out of (presumably) the second half of my life.

I keep coming back to the same answer, which is that I would like to be rich in time. I have this fantasy world that brought me such joy as a kid, a teen, and a twentysomething, and then...I had to set aside play and establish an adult life. 

Occasionally I've dipped back in, just in little indulgent chunks. A novel here and there...eight of them in 18 years, if you count two that were rewritten from the ground up as 4 novels. So about every two years on average I have allowed myself to write what I really love for a a few months.

It always circles back to money, and not having the time to indulge my passions because they don't make money. The obvious answer is, do it in your spare time, but that is not always easy because when I write things I really love, I get deep in the zone. It's a drug. My ability to concentrate on anything else utterly dies until the story is done. I can't write anything else. I can barely function at a day job. I haven't found a way around this yet, so I have to be able to carve out some pretty decent chunks of time! 

I've been devouring books about money, time, and simple living in the past year. Because, basically, I know there is one path to the life that feels right: getting off the treadmill of working to make money just so you can spend it. Some things are simply unavoidable, of course. I just had to buy new glasses and get a repair done on the car, I need a root canal, and we need a new roof AND new mattresses, as we've been sleeping on ancient ones that hurt our backs. All this is definitely going to add up this year but it's also pretty needed.

But, the fact remains, we live in a world full of advertisements and influencers and shiny things. I spend money on new books I could get at the library. I spend money on convenience food. I forget I was subscribed to things I don't need. 

In the past couple of weeks I read Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari, a book about how we as a society are collectively losing focus and, as a result, precious hours of our lives. LOTS of them. Social media is obviously the biggest culprit there. I've been instilling a rule that I only use social media when the sun is down, because the morning is my most vulnerable time for losing focus. By the time evening rolls around, I am just not as interested in messing around on social media because I can feel the day slipping away and I want to make use of it. (In fact I've pretty much ignored social media since I started this rule, LOL) But it's also not a super draconian rule that way: if I need to use social media, I can, without guilt, as long as I wait for that sun to go away!

He brings up some other culprits as well, such as junky food and lack of outdoor and free play, especially for children, but really...for everyone. I have noticed this year while I've been doing Ebay more than writing that when I DO write, I am way more productive, because I've been giving myself breaks and letting ideas fully flower. I've also been taking more time to read and play JRPGs, which also help give me more story ideas and mental breaks, and I take walks whenever I work at the bookstore because I walk half a mile to town.

I am also in the middle of Saved: How I Quit Worrying About Money and Became the Richest Guy in the World by Ben Hewitt. This book muses on the life of one of Ben's friends, Erik, who lives on about $6000 a year in 2013 in a small cabin without running water or electricity and seems like one of the happiest people he knows.

Like most people reading this book, I'm sure, I thought, "Look, some things are worth being a slave to capitalism for, and one of them is my indoor toilet." But, it does make me think hard on what other things ARE worth being bound to money. Mortgage, yes. A mattress that doesn't kill my back, yes. Decent food, most of the time. Good cat food, definitely, because my babies are getting old and they're all still healthy and spry. New books, video games, manga, vintage clothing at retail prices, dessert while out...lots of other things, probably not. I already have enough stuff to amuse me for years and cards for four different libraries! There is also the environmental factor. Consumption is one of our biggest barriers to reversing climate change, and humans often try to fix the problem by consuming greener products instead of just consuming less...but that isn't really a fix. 

This is the life I would like to build. A life where I get up in the morning, make a cup of tea, read a chapter or two or work on a puzzle, take a short walk, tidy up the house a bit, make a home-cooked meal, write through the afternoon, do a little yoga, have a little dinner, spend an hour or so maintaining my social media presence, read a bit more before bed. Work at the bookstore a few days a week. Have some outings to libraries, see friends, take walks, and go thrifting for a few cheap treasures. To me, this sounds lovely and absolutely indulgent unless one of is of retirement age, but in fact it could be quite possible due to how frugal and simple it is.

The Ebay madness will continue for another week, and then I'll give the house a good solid cleaning, and then it's Dade's 50th birthday bash. After that, I have some time to write and you'll see more of me.