live simple

It's been a month since I last wrote and in that time there has been quite a bit stirring around the old homestead. In my last entry I had mentioned that I was up for a promotion and I was still rather indecisive as to whether or not I was going to accept it. Well safe to say that 11 days ago I took an action that will set in motion a chain of events that will ultimately lead to a cartharsis. That is a bold statement, but I know that my life will undoubtedly change in the coming months and the details will follow as soon as I have them. You see for many years I've lived in a sort of stasis when it came to my career, lately things have changed for me at work radically to the point of having shaken the very foundation of my concepts of what work means to me and how work interelates with the rest of my life. For this reason I've taken upon myself to find a method by which my personal life will take on new meaning and my work life will allow me that ability. Some of you may have heard of the term voluntary simplicity, which the Wikipedia defines as follows:

" voluntary simplicity or voluntary poverty) is a lifestyle considered by its adherents to be an alternative to Western consumerism. Adherents claim various reasons for pursuing this lifestyle, such as personal health, ecological or spiritual motivations.

The term "downshifting" is often used to describe the act of moving toward a lifestyle based on voluntary simplicity. Many who practice simple living subscribe to the axiom "less is more.""

My wife and I have often talked about further downshifting our lives and recently we have both taken measures towards fulfilling those goals. We are not extreme practitioners of this philosophy as we both have our own cars and live in an above average home in a middle-income neighbourhood suburb of Montreal. However, as some of my regular readers know I'm currently converting a 91 Ford Festiva to run on electric power and once this project is successfully on the road I may in fact get rid of my present gas powered vehicle in favour of my alternative powered vehicle. I am an avid Do-it-yourselfer and have tackled everything from plumbing to electricity passing by masonry and carpentry. Nothing is beyond my grasp nor my ambituous undertaking and I consider myself proud to rarely have to call for outside services. In fact I like my way of life and my philosophy so much that I intend to create a small community website in the next several months. The exact details of which will appear on this blog and on my website http://www.slandi.net when it comes back up in late November or early December. I hope to share my own and my wife's experiences with living a more simple life and delve into details on how individuals can live their lives without getting caught up in today's consumerism. Interested? By all means stay tuned.