So where does the trail to Mindful Living begin? It begins with you and right where you are at right now! It begins with the desire to wage war against all of the ‘stuff’ in life; the desire to chip away the unhealthy things, the things that are holding you back from more important things or stealing your time, energy and even your health away. I do not believe there is only one right way to ride this trail – it is a personal journey for each of us. How far we choose to go on the trail is also a personal decision. What is important is to have a reason for choosing this trail. You have to define your own goals and find ways to get there and the motivation to keep going (or to get up and going again).
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been on this trail for a while now. What started the journey? I really can’t say it was one specific thing. I was simply tired of doing things how everyone else did them or how ‘they’ thought I should do them. Those who know me well enough will tell you I kind of like making my own beat to march to. I guess I simply got tired of listening to someone else’s beat.
Where did I start? Hmm, that’s another non specific. I get a little obsessive-compulsive at times (the laughing you are now participating in is really not necessary, but I’ll let it slide since it is good for you!). I decided to try many things at once. It was a bit chaotic, but it helped me see what would ‘stick’ and become part of my new trail. What stuck was the determination to pay off my debt (except for that crazy 30 year project I bought a while back). That became my first defined goal. I wasn’t extreme on that trail, but I was pretty darned focused. While maintaining a decent comfort level in our lives, I chipped away at those pesky credit cards and car loans paying them off in about a year. Since that was a different set of blog posts, I won’t go into all of the details. I’ll simply say it still feels great!
On that leg of the journey, I tripped across (or pulled back out) several things I enjoyed doing. I put up my own ‘no tools required – female installed’ clothes line and enjoyed the therapeutic benefits of being outdoors and the fresh smell of nature dried laundry. Don’t get me wrong, I still used my dryer from time to time to soften the towels up and such. It had a pretty long life until one day it said its time had come to an end. My Uncle Jimmy came to the rescue installing a ‘tools required – male rigged to be stronger and longer lasting’ clothes line in its place.
I also started a container garden – I would have torn up the entire back yard if I’d have had a ‘tiller, but thankfully I did not! This past summer I had fresh strawberries, black berries, blueberries and yummy snap peas. I am still nurturing the berry plants and also the baby green and red grape plants I started but won’t yield any grapes for a while. In that same general area, I started up my compost bin. I will now have some great additives for my garden area this spring.
There are other things that have stuck as well, but these are the most exciting – for me anyway. It once again triggered my desire for several acres, lots of fruit trees, a big garden and a quaint little home primarily powered by solar and wind energy. Okay, so that is a dream land, but there are still many things I can work towards.
I would love to tell you this series of entries will be straight forward, only on one track and simple to read/follow. However, there is no sense in lying to you! I tend to bounce at times more often than T-I-GG-E-R at a birthday party, so don’t feel bad if you can’t make sense out of what I’m doing! All I can tell you is that I hope to chronicle my adventures as they come about – maybe you can take something from them and maybe you can add something to them. Most of all, make ways to enjoy life!
No comments:
Post a Comment