The New Year's resolution of Okanagan newlyweds, Darrell and Lindsay Eason, transformed into a year long commitment to sustainable living. Follow their journey as they change from a green couple to a sustainable couple over the next year. And, get ideas and tips that can inspire you to change your life as well.
March 16th 2009
What is important to your life? Our latest journey to a cabin in the Shuswap has allowed us to contemplate this important question. How many of us actually take the time to identify if everything we are doing in our life is something we find extremely important? And take money out of the question. Humans do all kinds of stupid things for money (but that’s a whole other discussion)!
Darrell and I stayed on a 160 acre estate in Celista, BC in the North Shuswap. There are cozy cabins, an organic garden, Icelandic horses, affectionate barn kitties and the cutest puppy ever. The estate is also home to Celista Estate Winery and the homestead is complete with an art gallery and a soon to be wine tasting bar. The owners, Marg and Jake, are the sweetest people in the world, and are living their dream. They have obviously figured out what is important to them.
What is important to us? By spending time out there we think we have answered this question for ourselves. It’s not very profound or exciting but actually quite traditional. So here it is – having the time to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. In 5 days we forgot about stressful deadlines, irritating commutes and answering the hundreds of emails and phone calls we get each day. Being immersed in nature, we thoroughly enjoyed our time. The simple pleasures, like getting to know the area, hiking through the snow, feeding the horses, playing with pets, baking, reading, talking... Our days of nothing were filled with the most satisfying feeling – joy! Why do our daily lives have to be such hard work?
During University, I always envied the people I was learning about in Anthropology. People in many cultures work less than 5 hours a day and “work” was gathering and preparing food, clothing and shelter. That doesn’t sound like work to me. That is what we do for hobbies: garden, sew and build things. Humans enjoy doing the things that help provide for our basic needs. And do you know what they do with the rest of their day? Enjoy leisure time, relax, socialize, and create beautiful art. They don't need to worry about stock prices and retirement savings because their culture is built on ensuring everyone is looked after.
For the past month I have been very content flipping through recipe books and dreaming of canning food and having a garden. These simple pleasures are things that people are too busy to do because they are working eight hours a day, plus commute, and spending time waiting in line in the supermarket, the bank or the mall. We don’t have time for these simple pleasures (things that we actually enjoy) because we need to earn money and find the quickest and easiest way to put food on the table, zone out and do it all again the next day.
Well let's take a step back and reassess what really matters… and make that our priority!
