Living a small life

Jenni Haziran 18, 2022

Hello Dear Reader,

I am striving to live a simple, small life, what that means to me, will be different to the next person trying to do the same thing. In the end, I want less "stuff" and more happy memories of a life well lived. By well lived, I don't mean a big fancy life, I mean a small, grateful life that will nurture my body and mind in time to come. I want to live a long healthy life using my hands to make, create, grow, bake, uplift and improve everything I do and the lives of my little family. I want to be kind to the planet and be mindful of resources to make them last as long as I do. I want to be grateful everyday for a small simple life.

My first go at growing tomatoes. I remember being super excited at this achievement

This downward shift toward a more simple, slow and less complicated life started about 7 years ago when lovely hubby contracted a viral brain infection and was unable to work for an extended period of time, we had health insurance but no income insurance so we were living, for a long time, on my wage, which is okay but not marvellous. As I was never a shopper or a big spender and was always into thrift shopping and borrowing books from the library, living with less money wasn't a huge change for me, it just made it more real. I guess this health scare in out lives just consolidated our need to live a more thrifty, thankful life.

This photo was taken on lovely Hubby's birthday in 2009, at this stage he had endured 2 months of hospitalisation and 3 brain surgeries. He was quite confused due to his memory impairment but he never forgot who we were. We had permission to take him out to a restaurant for his birthday and ironically from this day forward, he started to improve.

For what seemed like an eternity, with lovely hubby, it didn't look good and there was no way of telling how it was going to turn out. His condition was quite the mystery and therefore very hard to treat. After three major brain surgeries, he is lucky to have escaped the viral brain infection with a dodgy memory, altered vision, delayed reaction time and some reduced fine motor skills.

He is able to work two days a week in the therapeutic massage business that his late father started 25 years ago and our wonderful son works the other three days. Hubby is also now having to help more with his frail mum who's health is precarious but seems to be able to carry on regardless. It's funny how things work out, Hubby not being able to work as much and first his late Gran then his late Dad and now his mum needing extra help.

So, for me, although my life really didn't change that much, going through all that made me a different person, it made me resilient and more aware of my strengths. Lovely Hubby has changed also, he is more laid back then he used to be and doesn't seem to worry as much. Together we plan more for the future and work as a team to reach our goals.

As lovely hubby is home more than I am he now does the grocery shopping and some of the cleaning of the house. I am more acutely aware of every cent that comes my way and really enjoy the challenge of living on less. My goal is to continue decluttering and striving to live on less, not just "money" wise but "stuff" wise. I look at everything I own and I think to myself, I don't need another single thing in my life. I have every "practical" thing that I need to make my life comfortable and enjoy the thought of living with less.

I have made plenty of mistakes along this simple living route and will no doubt make plenty more but to me thats what it is all about, learning by your mistakes, taking it on board and doing it better.