Voluntary Simplicity

As I mentioned in last weekends podcast, downshifting means many different things to different people, and I wanted to clarify what I meant by that. To some its the full escape to the country experience, throw in some chickens and goats, stir and serve, but to others its just the culmination of their growing realisation that they can no longer sustain their current lifestyle and feel the need to slow down.

There is a similarity to voluntary simplicity, in fact most folk who downshift are doing so to live a simpler life, but living a simpler life doesn't necessarily mean eschewing technology - we're not all Luddites. In fact the Luddites actions were driven not by a desire for simplicity but by the threat to their livelihood by the increased mechanisation of the mills. I dream of wind and water turbines on our land, powering our house, heating our animal housing and eventually, charging up our electric landrover. I have no intention of giving up my Xbox, laptop or home entertainment systems, but I plan to produce the energy to run them myself and with minimal cost to the planet . Voluntary simplicity means something else entirely to me, just as it will mean something different to you.

Some people who practice voluntary simplicity act consciously to reduce their need for purchased services or goods and, by extension, their need to sell their time for money. Some will spend the extra free time this generates helping their family or others in a voluntary way. Others may spend the extra free time to improve their own quality of life, without regard for the well being of others and lets face it, growing your own food, tending your animals and knitting your own yogurt takes up a lot more time than nipping down to Tescburys for a pint of milk. Your house cow needs milking twice a day, and all that lovely fresh unpastureised milk needs processing. You need to make sure that you either grow or buy enough fodder for the winter, you need to make sure that your lovely bovine is healthy and she will need to be mated regularly to make sure that she keeps in milk, you then need to make a decision about your calf/s. (a lot of work for your daily pinta!)

Downshifting to smallholding may mean that you are living a simpler life, but it is by no means an easier or less busy one. Its not all roses around the front door and long walks with the dogs, but so very much worth it.