Tue Sep 08, 2009 4:34 pm
Hello to all
Hello everyone. My wife & I live in the suburbs of Philadlephia, PA, but we now have a second home down in Henderson County between Hendersonville & Bat Cave. It has been my goal to make a major life change & finally we are throwing in the towel on the rat race here in the northeastern megalopolis & seeking a slower, quieter & simpler lifestyle where we can be closer to nature & the earth. I am a casualty of the economic meltdown & am unemployed, which has given me time to reflect on what really is important as opposed to what others have led me to believe was important. My instincts are pointing the way in no uncertain terms. We have had it with the corporate world, the consumer driven society around us, & the greedy SOBs that care only for maintining the status quo as well as their self inflated egos.
I started camping & then backpacking about 36 years ago. Over the years I spent more & more time alone in the woods seeking spirtual solace & answers to my troubled mind. Nature always seemed to be able to cure me of my worries as well as to help me shed the false comforts those around me seemed addicted to. Things like new cars, new techno toys, shopping at the mall or visiting a casino never appealed to me. Rather I found my greatest peace walking along a remote wilderness trail, acting in harmony with the timetable set by nature & not by clocks. Peace was lying in a warm sleeping bag in a cozy two person tent lit by the warm glow of a candle lantern while the sound of rain drops beating on the tent roof soothed and relaxed me. Feeling the wind gusts on a high peak after an arduous trek to the summit, hearing the thunder echo through the mountain valleys, or smelling the scent of wild ferns mingled with pine needles was like nirvana for me.
Now at fifty years of age, I am hoping that we can sell our too large house up here & move down to North Carolina and start to live a more sustainable life style. The home we bought is three years old & seems to be well insulated & is only 1400 square feet, so at least we have a foundation to start with. We are looking into solar & reintroducing native flora to our land. We also would like to plant a vegetable garden so most of the vegetables we eat will be local, pesticide free, & will not need to be trucked or flown into the big supermarket. We recycle everything possible and try not to run the air conditioners or leave unecessary lights on. We also use compact flourescent bulbs. It is small steps from us all that will add up to a mass conciousness that the Earth is a sacred place, the only home we have, and that technology is not going to save our never ending mistakes as a society. If enough folks make the effort to downsize, respect the Earth, be cognizant of what is going on and adapt new strategies and TALK about it, then perhaps we will recover from the downward spiral that this planet is undergoing day to day. We look forward to rational debate and also a sense of community where respect for this precious garden we call Earth is central.
Thanks.
I started camping & then backpacking about 36 years ago. Over the years I spent more & more time alone in the woods seeking spirtual solace & answers to my troubled mind. Nature always seemed to be able to cure me of my worries as well as to help me shed the false comforts those around me seemed addicted to. Things like new cars, new techno toys, shopping at the mall or visiting a casino never appealed to me. Rather I found my greatest peace walking along a remote wilderness trail, acting in harmony with the timetable set by nature & not by clocks. Peace was lying in a warm sleeping bag in a cozy two person tent lit by the warm glow of a candle lantern while the sound of rain drops beating on the tent roof soothed and relaxed me. Feeling the wind gusts on a high peak after an arduous trek to the summit, hearing the thunder echo through the mountain valleys, or smelling the scent of wild ferns mingled with pine needles was like nirvana for me.
Now at fifty years of age, I am hoping that we can sell our too large house up here & move down to North Carolina and start to live a more sustainable life style. The home we bought is three years old & seems to be well insulated & is only 1400 square feet, so at least we have a foundation to start with. We are looking into solar & reintroducing native flora to our land. We also would like to plant a vegetable garden so most of the vegetables we eat will be local, pesticide free, & will not need to be trucked or flown into the big supermarket. We recycle everything possible and try not to run the air conditioners or leave unecessary lights on. We also use compact flourescent bulbs. It is small steps from us all that will add up to a mass conciousness that the Earth is a sacred place, the only home we have, and that technology is not going to save our never ending mistakes as a society. If enough folks make the effort to downsize, respect the Earth, be cognizant of what is going on and adapt new strategies and TALK about it, then perhaps we will recover from the downward spiral that this planet is undergoing day to day. We look forward to rational debate and also a sense of community where respect for this precious garden we call Earth is central.
Thanks.
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