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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Transition Lifestyles: Satisfaction

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  • From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Transition Lifestyles: Satisfaction
  • Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:07:59 -0400

On 09/04/2010 10:52 AM, pbunch@cox.net wrote:
I'm really interested in how people on the list relax and recreate. One of
the great challenges of the transition will be finding low material
throughput means of having fun and finding meaning in life. . . ~Phil

Good topic, Phil. But one of the marvelous things about the lifestyle we're trying to create is the many points at which "work" and "relaxation/recreation" merge. Bouts of weeding or thinning may leave me stiff, but the meditative trance is at least as beneficial as an equivalent time meditating on the cushion. How often we lean on the hoe as we're entertained by the antics of our livestock companions. When I'm in good form with the scythe, I'm dancing. My current project breeding black soldier fly grubs: It's work (it's helping to feed the chickens), but it's so damn much fun it sure feels like play to me.

You mentioned a number of the things such as socializing with neighbors (there again, where does sharing a work project fit--working or partying?) which we do to relax/recreate. Add reading--I can never get enough of it--TV will always be a lackluster second-best in comparison. And taking long walks through the woods and meadows about, communing with the wildlings and the green people. One reason I'm glad we have a dog is that she forces us, however hard the work at the moment, to get out on a walk with her every day.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

The industrial mind is a mind without compunction; it simply accepts that
people, ultimately, will be treated as things and that things, ultimately,
will be treated as garbage. ~Wendell Berry





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