I’ve got Your Money or Your Life out of the library right now. I picked it up because it seems to be an influential book for people who have chosen to “downshift”, as they say. It’s compelling reading and I plan to review it more thoroughly when I’m done. One of the concepts in this [...]

This weekend I realized something important: I am content. I don’t think that I’ve let myself be content for a long time. There was always some new thing to get, a further self-imposed challenge to overcome, another person to try to impress. This month I’ve been trying to eliminate the phrase “I want to get [...]

One of the things that I admire about my mother-in-law is her ability to use everyday things to make beautiful home decorations. This weekend she worked some of her magic for our table centrepieces. Beautiful, aren’t they? For each one, they cored an apple, shaved the bottom of it to make it sit flat, and [...]

I’ve been learning about others who are choosing to live simply, and there are several terms used to describe their lifestyle: voluntary simplicity, intentional simplicity, living gently, and mindful living. I like all of the terms. They emphasize the choice in the lifestyle instead the challenges. Today, though, ‘mindful living’ is the one I’m working [...]

Every Tuesday my husband faithfully rounds up the various bags in our home and puts them out on the curb. (I love it that he does this.) He commented that these days we’re putting a lot less waste out; in fact, he estimates that we’ve halved the amount of garbage we’re creating. I can think [...]