I was watching Alaska: The Last Frontier on the Discovery Channel (a show I *highly* recommend, and I watch very little television), and a neighbor of the Kilcher family talked about moving his family to the Alaska wilderness.
“It’s not easy, but I’m not looking for easy.”
Sometimes it’s the simplest quote that stops me in my tracks. So much of what we spend our time and money on is for the sake of convenience. A car to get us places quickly and easily, prepared meals so we don’t have to cook or clean up the kitchen, washers and dryers to clean our clothes. And yet at the same time, we work 40, 50, sometimes 60 hours a week to make all this happen. Sometimes these jobs provide satisfaction, many times they don’t. We work extra on a job we might not like to gain conveniences to make up for the time lost to that very job.
So in light of this, why do I do what I do? Don’t get me wrong, I still have that car, depend on prepared food from time to time, and do use my dryer most of the time. But I also keep a large garden, chickens, make laundry and dishwasher detergent, cloth diaper, and probably a myriad of other things I can’t even think of that laugh in the face of convenience. Of course I have reasons for all of these things, but I think I realized what underlies it all. I’m the happiest when I’m self sufficient. I enjoy the satisfaction of doing something for myself. I’m not looking for easy. Are you?
Jessie : Improved 