COMPLEX SIMPLICITY

I feel the need to explain some of the struggles I have with living a simpler life. I did not set out to set myself apart from the world in an eccentric way but to take more responsibility for the choices I make on a daily basis. I have to put my hands up and say that my human nature does mean that I make mistakes, but I try and learn from them. I am not living a perfectly green life but I am trying to make choices that are in line with my values and beliefs, I do what is possible and yet also attempt to look at what seems impossible.
Can one person really make a difference...I think we can, make changes one step at a time and happiness for me lies in making those changes because I choose to make them and because somewhere in my mind they make sense. This is not for everyone I admit, but my aim is to get you to stop just one minute before you do something and ask yourself why you are doing it and how it contributes to what you think is important in your life.
It may not always make a profit, it may actually cost more money but the reward can be in different areas of your life.

Yesterday, I stepped into the wide world and observed some interesting changes around. The radio also talked on the news about Uk consumers becoming more savvy about what they buy. There is evidence everywhere, well nearly everywhere. The local coffee shop boasts fair trade coffee, the clothes shop is starting a line of ethical cotton clothes and complete traceability of its goods, there is evidence of people now asking me, do you want a bag ( must have a sign on my head saying no no no bag please), and there is more variety in the fast food chains. This is not a large town but there is a new addition of a juice and soup bar which is just fantastic. I spotted a gym asking the question are you a chocoholic or fit for fruit and I have to admit that I am neither of those. The most interesting conversation I could eavesdrop on ( simply because it was happening really next to my ears, was a group of adolescent boys rating girls in different categories. If my mind serves me correctly, girls have never actually been rated as homemakers, housewives, childbearers etc, I seem to recall some more physical comparisons in the past. Are the boys of today looking to return to some more traditional modes of support in their lives. It left me wondering how these girls rate those boys, and do they? ( Not an area to go )

Today here, it rains heavily and although that means I am to stay inside, I know we need the rain in this area. The weather men predict a drier than usual summer ahead. I could do nothing and just wait and see or I could try and plan how I can harvest a resource that is readily available, still free and not taxed.

Rain saving, is put on my list.