I have been getting a big life lesson this week about how much we really need. It is time to shift the focus from what we think we need to be comfortable to what we really need, prioritizing the resources. I’m hoping that the end result will be a more peaceful and centered life, and a big push toward financial freedom.
While I try to practice de-cluttering for an ongoing basis, something major shifted to the point where I could let a lot more go. I started following advice from organizing guru Peter Walsh, and as I could see improvement in my home, it motivated me to push even more. For example, I thought I had gotten my books down to the bare bones, but yesterday I managed to release 20 more, something I wouldn’t have thought would have been as easy as it was. Many of the books were purchased but never read, a waste of money, a waste of resources.
Today, I woke up to no power in the house. A nasty storm has created a power outage in our neighborhood. Out here in the woods, we could get power back in a few hours or a few days, depending on the size of the problem and the priority of the particular issue.
All of the devices that we can’t see, to live without were silent until my husband hooked up the generator. Since the generator can only produce so much power, we had to make decisions for a limited resource. The first priority was the heat, the second was the refrigerator and freezer. The third was the microwave. Heat and food are what we need most. Water, too of course. We don’t have any running water at the moment, be we can get by with bottled water in the short-term.
I do need my computer for work. At the moment, it is running on battery power, and if the power isn’t restored soon, I’ll head to the library to charge the laptop post all of the freelance work I have due today.
While it certainly isn’t convenient, we could live like this–without television, video games, 24-7 Internet. We could also live without the bills and expenses that those devices and services cost. We could use our resources for something better.