Why Not Me

There's tons of spring flowers popping up everywhere around here now. Every year there are more and more wild flowers in the areas I have cleared. This year I have already spotted two new ones that I don't recall seeing last year. I enjoyed some of these violets on a salad tonight. They are excellent for cleansing your system and blood. Personally, I think many of the first spring flowers are there for us to eat, to clean our bodies after a long, cooped up winter.

I think part of the reason I haven't had much enthusiasm for posting lately is because, I realized, for the longest time I have just been doing these 'here's what I did today' posts. Those get boring to me. So, I thought I would try to do some 'here's why I did what I did today' posts.

Dirty dog snout and tongue after chasing moles. Sometimes she will have her nostrils completely plugged up with mud. She thinks this is great fun.
A lot of people question me on why I try to live a non-consumer style life. Why do I try to make so much by hand? Why do I worry about growing so much food? Why bother with animals? Why don't I just get down off my high horse, as one guy put it, and go to the store and just buy something? So, I got to thinking, why do I go to the trouble? Now, to me, it's not really trouble but you know what I mean. I'm going to leave out the financial reasoning because that's kinda a given at this point. So, what else is there?

1. Well, obviously, I believe it's healthier to grow my own food. Even 'organic' farms have their troubles and we can't trust everybody to not put in their products what they say they are not. If I grow it though, I know exactly what is in it. It is also good exercise to work outside and good for the spirit. The food is more nutritious in a multitude of ways.
2. More and more I choose not to participate in the abuse of living creatures used for food. This is one that has really started to bother me and I have been doing what I can to remove myself from this cycle. I'll tell more about that later. If I care for the animals I plan on eating then I know they will have a sanitary, active and healthy life. Now, I know some people would just say, don't eat meat but it's not quite that simple in my opinion. Considering that large tracts of land are cleared (thereby displacing or killing untold animals) for vegetable farming, even the vegan lifestyle has it's implications on animal life.
3. To make me more grateful and appreciative of all forms of life besides my own and see the value in it all. If I raise my own food you better believe I will not waste any of it and it pains me to no end to see any part on an animal wasted that has given it's life to me. I think one of the major problems with American society is that most people are completely ungrateful for what they have. We waste enough food in one day to feed entire countries. This is a national shame on us.

4. I choose my lifestyle in order to live an enjoyable, fulfilling life that directly benefits me and those I love, rather than spending the majority of my time working to fill a corporation's pockets. A corporation that would not piss on me if my head was on fire. Been there, done that. Not again if I can help it.
5. I choose this life in order to be the change I wish to see in the world. Perhaps by my example some people will see that a life of mindless consumerism is pointless and empty. That there are ways to have a decent and creative home and life without sacrificing yourself to a lifetime of servitude. Perhaps people will see that there are always alternatives to the status quo. You don't have to keep doing things the way they've always been done.
6. To have a healthy and fun life. I read the other day that people that garden a lot tend to have more sex. Hey, I think if anything gets you laid more often, it's a good thing! But besides that, I have really been enjoying myself so much this past few months. To sit out on the deck in the cool of the morning, sipping hot tea, listening to the birds. To build things for me or create objects that I know others will enjoy having in their lives. To take time out and have some fun, go on a little trip, see some new sites. To have the time to spend with friends for fun or if they are in need. That is why I choose this.
I'm sure I have left some stuff out; there are multitudes of advantages in a simple life. I guess mainly, is I would hate to come to the end of my time and see that I was so preoccupied with what Wal-Mart had on sale every week that I never actually looked around and saw my life. That I never saw the neighbor that I could have helped or the flowers that I was stomping on to get to the car to go shopping once again. To know then that my life had revolved around things, stupid, worthless things, would be Hell to me.