100 Things Challenge: A Little Filler For Your Freedom

I wanted to share this blog post from A Guy Named Dave. He blogs at 100 Things Challenge about consumerism, minimalism and finding freedom from stuff. Over the past few months I have been shedding unnecessary things by either selling them or giving them away. That is the easy part. Honestly, the hard part is not buying more stuff. I do allow myself to purchase food, and necessities of course. But cloths, shoes, and other things are put off for a once a year thrift store trip. The only thing I allow myself to purchase for fun is vinyl records. All this said, I start to wonder what to do with myself. When living in a urban location you don't have a ton to do so usually the solution is to shop. It is hard to break free from that.

It can be a bit boring to live a simple life. You purge your excess stuff. You stop shopping on the weekends. Soon enough you find yourself sitting in a shockingly empty house wondering what to do. So, what do you do? Well, the first thing is to ask yourself, why do you feel restless? Why does life feel empty?
In fact, it is completely appropriate to go through a time of feeling restless and uncertain after adjusting our lifestyles to simple living. Here’s why I think we experience this. Consumerism manufactures bondage and breaking free isn’t the final goal.
People who excessively consume, be it for comfort or status or whatever reason, become enslaved to their things. Often consumerism binds them in triple-shackles: debt, discontent, and debris. They spend so much money on stuff that they go into debt and are now bound to their payments. They buy things that don’t satisfy and now experience cognitive dissonance, either convinced there’s something wrong with them or something wrong with what they bought; both rationalizations usually lead to another purchase and more bondage. And, all this stuff makes for a serious mess around the house that quite literally has people feeling stuck in stuff.
As bad as the constraints of consumerism might seem, for many people there is a familiar comfort to them. This is a common experience for those experiencing some kind of, say, addition or dysfunction. People will regularly stay in a bad situation rather than go through the discomfort of changing.
Yet thankfully, many people do change. Many of us have changed our relationship to stuff. We’ve broken bad habits and are no longer stuck in stuff. We’re free!
But freedom is not an end goal. Neither is emptiness. (In this, my view of simplicity differs dramatically from Zen, which seeks emptiness as an ideal state.) Freedom is the most privileged state of attachment. What I mean by this is that freedom allows us to fill up our lives of our own free will; freedom allows us to become attached to the right things.
This process of filling up our lives takes time. Moreover, it doesn’t happen by simply creating space. Simple living creates space. I often say that simple living creates physical, emotional, and spiritual space. But just because we’re no longer filling up that space with stuff doesn’t mean we can leave it empty and be satisfied. If we leave the space empty (yes, even the physical space) we’ll feel, well, empty.
The Little Goods Life that I’ve been talking about lately addresses this. It emphasizes filling up by pursuing “little goods.” It’s a lifestyle of consumer moderation, but also of career and charity and relational moderation. Little by little.
One final thought for now. Around the world people fill up their lives with all sorts of pursuits. Obviously, many people fill up their lives with bad activities. But there are plenty of good things to do. So if you don’t like hiking, try crafting. If you don’t like reading, try photography. If you don’t like cooking, try volunteering. There are endless fulfilling activities for you and your family. Be patient, though. It takes a while to break free from consumerism. It will take a while to settle into new life pursuits.

Ranch Fest, ID

I went to Idaho this weekend for a music festival. What an experience! It was soooooo cold there. I woke up this morning and it was snowing. ACK! But the music was great and it was good to get out of town for a night.

 This is Idaho...

 ...and so is this. (Click on the picture to read the sign.)

 A beggin dawg.

 Many miles traveled!

 The land is so open and massive. We hiked this hill to get a great view. Below you can see the barn where the bands play as well as some of the parking and camping.

 One of my faves! Boise ID band Hillfolk Noir. Note the suitcase as a bass drum. The guitar and vocalist man is probably one of the most genuine people I have ever met. So creative.

Jared Mees & The Grown Children played around 10:00pm. So great! A dog kept wandering around on stage. It was very Idaho. Nothing is too serious.

I am already excited to return next year with 20 more blankets of course. Nothing like the high desert to really demonstrate the harsh elements.

Have wonderful Sunday.

CCosner

Find Your State!!

Thank you Our American Generation.

Dirt: The Movie

I watched this documentary tonight on Hulu. It is so wonderfully sad and inspiring at the same time. I have always lived close to the dirt as a child and now living in an urban setting deprives me from the dirt. Luckily this summer I will be able to go back and garden. :)

I will be the hummingbird. I will do the best I can.

What is Fracking?

I never knew anything about fracking until today.

Do you know what it is?



This article on Grist gives us a more detailed look at the issue.

I plan on watching this documentary this week...


Enjoy.

Famers Market!

Today was the first farmers market of the season! Hurray!! No more going to the store if I can help it except for the necessities. I am thrilled!

 Beautiful Radishes! I could not resist them. Far better than anything store bought.

 Lettuce, radishes and goat-milk soap, all local. :D

 Middle-school band provided the entertainment this week.

 

I have been working on my Senior Project, trying to finish my BA in the Theatre Arts this spring. I have been neglecting my blog and it makes me sad. More later?

Happy Saturday
CCosner

Making your own oreos and growing cloths.

 Here are a few neat things I found this week:

A recipe for oreo cookies! Win! I need to make these now simply because I love homemade cookies and they look incredible.  Check out the website for other wonderful treats!

Another reason why I will not be owning a car any time soon...

Growing cloths sounds weird but it has so much potential!



 ...and, I would love to live in this apartment. It is very minimalistic and functional.



Happy Friday!

Beautiful

Today was one of those terrifyingly stressful days. But it was brilliantly sunny and then I came home riding on my bike. It is amazing how therapeutic riding my bike has become. Suddenly the world was beautiful and perfect and nothing is wrong. Or rather, everything that seems wrong becomes so small and petty and so unworthy my time or stress. I come home and ignore my homework. Instead I do my dishes, tidy up, drink a glass of wine and listen to some music. I feel peaceful. It is amazing how taking on new lifestyle choices can help you find new peace that you might not have encountered normally.

Summer is on its way. I can feel it. It makes this all a little easier knowing it is so close.

Canvas Bag Anthem

 I know it is ridiculous but it is pretty funny. Thanks Travis for sharing!

Happy Mothers Day

See more at PostSecret.

Happy Mother's Day.

Spring Things

I have been missing on account of a lot of homework. Luckily it will all soon be over. :) So I will share with you what I have been doing over the past few weeks.

I made unleavened bread for Passover. It turned out really well except that the cookbook is both in metric and standard system so I heated my oven to 220 degrees and was wondering why the bread was not cooking. Hehehe. It was in Celsius.

 I made Lentils to go with. I will have to post this recipe. It is like lentil chili!

 Baby goats at my parents house on Easter Day.

 Tomatoes, take two. My first batch did not start but my second ones jumped out of the ground. :)

 I have decided that I not going to use a cloths dryer if I can help it. My shower curtain rod seems to work excellently as a free dryer. It takes a little longer but I don't have to worry about spending money on drying cloths and it is better for the environment. 

:D

Have a great weekend!