Taking Charge

When I embarked on this journey to abundance, I had no idea of the level of personal growth I was to encounter. My family and I are only now realising that life doesn't have to be complicated. Life has a way of being whatever you want it to be, and I wanted it simplified. One day I stopped and looked around me, and I didn't like what I saw.

I saw a world that was spinning out of control, and a generation of people that followed the flock without ever really getting anywhere. As parents, we have lost our confidence as capable carers of children, preferring to leave to the experts what used to come naturally to mothers. We live in an age of mass consumerism, greed and the almighty dollar. At Christmas, we flock to the shops in an effort to remember every human to whom we owe a gift, spending far more money than we have. After the blessed event, we again trudge to the shops for the "after Christmas sales" and spend even more on things we do not need for reasons even we can't explain. We live in densely populated areas, near conveniences to ensure we never run out of anything. As a result, our roads are crowded, our air polluted and our minds are going into overdrive. We work at being successful, buying a bigger house, a second car, an annual holiday. Why? Because someone, somewhere, said we should, and we listened.

If this is worrying to you, relax, because it doesn't have to be that way. There is a much more satisfying way to live life, rich in it's rewards. It's called Self Reliance. Self reliance is first and foremost an adventure of the mind and body, every step of which takes us closer to the land in some way. Sitting discontentedly at a desk we dream of open space, broad skies and the fruits of our own harvest. If you have stopped and thought about your lifestyle, parenting practices, work commitments and thought "Why?", you are already on the right track! If you feel like your life is being dictated to you and that your very survival relies on some unseen entity, you're almost there!

The call of the land may have already overcome you. Surely a lifestyle independent of outside influence is more desirable? We need to think very seriously about what is really important, get back to basics as much as we can. Would it not be far better to earn a simple living working the land to some degree, however small, than being paid a higher wage for a somewhat less satisfying life? We thought so. This is not necessarily a geograpical relocation either, simply an adoption of new attitudes which can be applied anywhere.

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