New post at new site

I just put up a new post over at my new online home, A Life Reinvented:

My Minimalist Journey and My Move Around The World

New post over at my new site…

Voluntary Simplicity vs Unemployment…a fine line?

New Post…New Site…come in for a visit

I just put a new post up at my new site…come on over -

Jesse

Does this count as buyers remorse?

I broke my own rule. Granted it was awhile ago…but still. I bought a new gadget. Before leaving Seattle, I bought an iPod touch. I already had an iPod, an 80gig classic. I thought I would use the touch as a mobile wifi device, it has a bigger screen for watching movies etc…and fine, I’ll admit it, it was just cool.

Well I did use the touch on my flights to NY and on to Israel. But then I just started using it as a regular iPod, for music and podcasts. After a couple of weeks of trying to keep my podcasts synced between iTunes and 2 iPods I realized that I was going against my own life philosophy of Keep It Simple. I put out an email and the iPod was sold in 2 days (for a great price, they go for a premium here!) I am now happily carrying my classic to and from work, as well as docking it in it’s speakers when I’m home.

My question is this, does this count as buyers remorse like the netbook I wrote about previously? Or can I count this as simply a continuation of my purge since I bought it so long ago (~6 months)?

Whaddya think?

Site changes

By now, if you’re astute, you’ve noticed that I changed the byline of my little blog. Where it used to read, “The Simple Art of Simply Living,” for a couple of weeks now it’s read, “A Life Reinvented.” You see, I finally decided on a new title based on reader feedback and my own realization of the direction my life has been taking. That said, I’ve finally bought a domain and am in the process of migrating my online life to it’s cushy new home.

A Life Reinvented

Head over, check out the new layout and theme, if you are a subscriber, please reset you reader to point to this new location (I’m going to look into an automated way for me to do this for you, but just in case…). Let me know in the comments over there what you think, how can I make the theme even simpler and easier to read and navigate, etc…any and all feedback is not only welcomed, it’s highly encouraged!

More thoughts on Simplicity

I want to start this post with a quote from Daniel Quinn’s incredible book, Beyond Civilization:

Diversity, not uniformity, is what works. Our problem is not that people are living a bad way, but rather that they’re all living the same way. The earth can accommodate many people living in a voraciously wasteful and pollutive way, it just can’t accommodate all of us living that way.

This fits exactly with my vision of what Simplicity means. Whether you call it Voluntary Simplicity, Minimalism, or just Living Within Your Means – one thing is clear, not everyone will want to follow suit. And I’m not sure we want everyone following suit. Some people’s minds are too closed off to be able to accept that they can be truly happy living “without.” They will never be able to see that we aren’t talking about living “without” anything, we’re talking about getting MORE out of what we have. We’re talking about getting what we want – what we need – out of every moment of everyday.

The longer I’m here, the more I realize something I think I should have already known…It’s who we surround ourselves with that matters, not what we surround ourselves with. It’s this last part that I think most people from our culture will have the hardest time dealing with. People like their toys. They like their 4,000 sq ft houses that they share with one other person and maybe a small dog. They like the riding mower they need to care for their 10,000 sq ft lawns…

Me?

I’m trying to figure out a way to live out of a small trailer that I can tow behind either a Subaru or a RAV4 so I can be location independent. Yeah, it looks like I’m not going to be able to stay overseas for as long as intended. Nothing is clear just yet, but I’ll update y’all as soon as I know what’ s what. In the meantime, Keep It Simple. And if you know anybody in my neck of the woods who might want some English books, send them my way!

Minimalist diet?

Minimalist diet?

Yup.

That’s the sum total of a conversation I had recently with a friend I ran into while shopping for food. I had in my basket: tomatoes, cucumbers, kohlrabi, carrots, apples, bananas, dried lentils, eggs, and chicken (range fed and kosher). Not a package in site, not a box of cereal, not a granola bar or a loaf of bread. To the western eye, this looks like a rather strange collection of food to last a person the week.

The friend I ran into is actually the person who showed me the out of the way location of this little gem of a natural food store, so they already knew a bit about my recently adopted diet style, but had yet to see it in action. The  site of my basket of fresh, locally grown food flummoxed them. They honestly couldn’t imagine how i was going to eat for a week only buying this basket of food. To be honest I did add a bag of mixed raw nuts and a grapefruit.

For anyone not familiar, go read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan…now. I’ll wait…

The basic premise of this eye-opening book is summed up right on the cover, “Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants.” Add to this the diet style outlined by Mark Sisson at Marksdailyapple.com (minus the bacon and red meat), and you have a good idea of how I’m eating. Thus far I have lost 30+ lbs, my blood sugar has leveled out to the point where I can fast for an entire day, and I feel better than I have in years. I have energy to spare, and the connective tissue problems I’ve been battling for years are backing off. To me, this is the sign that these changes are for the better and I should stick with it.

Now, you might be wondering how this relates to the topic of my blog…well frankly since I’m not even sure what that topic is, how can you possibly ask that?

All kidding aside, I’ve been moving to a more minimalist approach to living for some time now, though I only just recently decided to go ahead and put that title on it. For some reason, in my head, the term “Minimalist” was associated with austere modernist design. Like the all white living room, with the white leather sofa and chairs…then one red rose in a vase on the white console table.

Shudder

But in my online wanderings I’ve started seeing a growing number of blogs dedicated to living with less. Up perked my ears. This is what I’ve been doing, realizing after years of living with a lot of STUFF that that STUFF had taken over and owned me. I wanted out from under it.

So here I am, working on my list to begin my own 100 things challenge. I’ll post about that soon, like after I get this inventory typed up and categorized…goodie…spreadsheet time…twitch

The complicated path to simplicity?

I was going to write a post this week about the convoluted, confusing, sometimes downright dumbfounding path to simplicity. But Leo over at mnmlist.com beat me to the punch. And since he did it in a much…ahem…simpler way than I ever could, go, read, enjoy, ponder, be enlightened…

But mostly, Slow Down.

New contest – Name this process!

I was just talking with my roommate about this blog and the reasons for why and when I started it, when I realized something – As anyone who’s read more than one post here can tell you, I’m in the middle of a big, I mean life-changingly gigantic…process. The problem is, I have no idea what to call it.

So I’m open to suggestions, what would you call this sort of process? To recap briefly: beginning two years ago(more or less) I started reevaluated my life and where it was going. In the intervening years I’ve started eating a Primal Diet, wearing minimalist shoes if any at all, lost somewhere in the area of 30 pounds(with at least that many to go), quit my field of employment, moved halfway around the world to Israel, and begun life anew at age 32. I sold off well over half of my belongings, dozens of books, hundreds of cds and dvds, 2 kayaks, and given away at least 10 RAV4 loads to Goodwill. I no longer read 10 news sites a day, have cut my RSS feeds down to 20 that relate directly to either my new home or my new, as yet unnamed lifestyle, and do not have a Facebook account.

I don’t know where this process is taking me, what I know as of right now is that I just started an internship in a new career field (more later on that).And I know that I’m giving my new home 1 year to make it’s impact on the process. Next summer I’m going to have to move from my current apartment anyway, so that seemed like a good time to decide if I can cut it here or if I’m going back to the states with my tail between my legs. Or maybe I’ll head somewhere else entirely? I just don’t know at this point, that’s part of the process.

I’ve heard and read about many “Lifestyles” that are close enough for government work, such as Downshifting, SeaChange, Minimalism, and Voluntary Simplicity. But being one who’s never really fit catagories even when pushed…I’d like to come up with something better.

So I leave to you readers, what would you call me?

General update

I’ve been giving a LOT of thought to my life situation recently – funny how moving to a new culture after 27 years in one place will have that effect on a person. Not that I came up with any mind altering, ground shaking, life changing (no pun intended, I swear) realizations, but it’s been a fun exercise, albeit mostly futile. I’m going to be honest with y’all and lay it all out there, air my own dirty laundry if you will. I’m in a strange headspace right now and find it cathartic to write this stuff down. I figured why not put it in a forum where I might be able to get some feedback from disinterested third parties.

About a week after arriving here I had what some would call a minor breakdown. Others would likely call it an epiphany. Either way, I was walking around my neighborhood on Shabbat afternoon. Shabbat is the Hebrew word that has been translated as Sabbath, and here it’s on Saturday. As the bulk of the country shuts down completely due to the Biblical injunction that “no work shall be done” on the 7th day, I find it very peaceful to wander during that time. That brings us to the end of today’s religion lesson, now back to the story -

So I was just walking around minding my own, when I had a moment of clarity…WHAT THE F$&% AM I DOING HERE?!?!

To explain, I am Jewish, and I do realize the region I’ve chosen to move to(if you haven’t been following along, I moved from Seattle, Wa. to Jerusalem, Israel in August). The realization had more to do with where I am in the sense of overall life place and less to do with my physical surroundings. I’m 32, single, wrapped up a career I couldn’t stand just before leaving Seattle, just moved halfway around the globe in an effort to simplify my life (yes, I see the irony in that) and really really miss my dog. I am in full time (8.30 – 1.00 5 days a week) language lessons and am hoping my cash reserves last out the year. I have no real idea what I want to do with my life at this point. One might ask how on this green earth I made the decision to move to Israel when at such an uncertain time in my life. One would have a very good point. I guess I saw this as the optimal time seeing as how everything else was in flux, so why not jump in with both feet?

In the intervening month and a half I’ve been able to calm down my brain at least a bit, collected the information I would need should I decide that I was too hasty in my decision to move here, and started trying to build a new life. I’m meditating twice a day. I’ve found a 5 month residential Green Apprenticeship program offered by a Kibbutz down south that results in 2 internationally recognized certificates, a Permaculture Designer Certificate and an Ecovillage Design Education certificate. I’ve been interested in these areas since high school, but it’s taken awhile for me to realize that it was possible, and even necessary to at least try to do what you love in order to make a living. I’ve also recently changed aspects of my life (read Purged STUFF) that make it possible for me to live a very comfortable life on a lot less that most people realize is possible.

I’m also hoping to start an internship in SEO soon. What is that, you ask? Search Engine Optimization. It’s basically New Marketing for websites, using a combination of writing and editing, and other marketing tactics to drive traffic to certain websites up. It’s a career that I can see myself in for a number of reasons, first and foremost the simple fact that I can do it and do it well…and secondly that it can be location independent. I can learn the skills in this internship, then take it to the web and look for freelance work for companies anywhere in the world. This way, if I end up going back to the states in a year, I can still work in that field while finding a place to indulge that passion for permaculture and eco-village design and construction.

Wow, that was a mouthful…

I’ll wrap up this little glimpse into my brain with a rundown of my physical ailments. The short version is “I’m a trainwreck with feet.”

I’ll start from the bottom and work up. I don’t have full range of motion in my left ankle. This resulted from a doctor who was proud of his ability to remove a bone fragment that he forgot he had nicked my Achilles tendon and never gave me sufficient physical therapy. I have a hole roughly the size of a dime in the cartilage behind my left kneecap. This is the result of being built a little wonky combined with having been a hardcore skiier (alpine and telemark) for the better part of 25 years. I have a bulging disc in the lumbar region of my back as a result of my own sheer and overwhelming stupidity. This is the #1 ongoing issue I have right now, sitting in plastic chairs 4 hours a day learning a new language is made all the more difficult by searing pain. Then there’s the damage done to my left rotator cuff (torn Bicep Tendon and pulled Trap) from being dragged down a set of cement stairs by a co-worker at a remodeling company. That one’s led to a myriad other issues all in the general area of my shoulder that plague me to this day.

Wow, I’m a bigger mess than even I realized.

Thanks for indulging my tendency towards the rant, this post is actually substantially shorter than the original draft, hopefully I didn’t give away too much about myself – I like to keep some mystery in my relationships.