Are you radically different than your younger self? Are there key elements that have stayed the same? Most parts? Do you feel as if you’ve followed the “roadmap of life” or forged your own path? Have there been “chapters” or do things all sort of slide into one contiguous flow? Share what you’d like!
As I’ve watched the continued and utter destruction of our natural habitat, the increased pollution and started reading up on climate changes effects and Limits to Growth I realised I didn’t want to be part of what was happenig and wanted to distance myself as much as possible from the people who were. Being surrounded by people and things that make you sick in the mind and body is not what I wanted. It did take a near death experience to catalyse the thoughts into actions though.
I had a change of life about 25 years ago, am now 57. I quit my job, my wife at the time didn’t want to take that journey with me, so got divorced. Now have a parter who does, live frugally (which I always mostly have, just back then I had lots of surplus income I invested, now only a little surplus income from said investments) and am debt free in a little cottage in a small town. A few missteps along the way, as I am not the all seeing eye.
Looking back my regret was not doing it sooner, never been brave I guess ?
Interesting segue, my next door neighbour is a recently retired crane operator who installed windfarms with mega cranes and before that was a lawyer and before that emigrated from another country.
I am so freakin’ unbelievably thankful to be with someone who didn’t start from a place of minimalism but ultimately arrived here. Because it just makes life so much easier. You don’t buy a bunch of junk. You don’t consume a bunch of junk. And simple comforts reign supreme. I am glad you guys are happy and you’re living simply. I am not sure what big picture will happen with us. By that I mean, I don’t know where we’re going to go or how we’re going to live. But I think a lot of stuff is up in the air for most. Glad you guys got to escape the rat race though.
As someone who just came out of a long term relationship, I don’t know how you can have an interesting life and survive the emotional scars.
I can understand why people trundle through life without, settling for compromise after compromise until your mind is depleted to the point of stable glue. It just hurts less.