It’s been awhile since we’ve created a new post. Since there were no traveling tales to speak of, I guess you could say that writer’s block set in. Instead, we’ve been spending some time on Twitter, building community. There are so many other travel folks out there leading exciting lives. It’s very inspiring! From U.S. bound RVers to globe trekking travelers, it’s fun to see all the tweets from people around the world.
Watching the news reports on the state of the economy and witnessing our plummeting retirement account makes us long for the days we spent in the desert in Arizona back in 2003. For several months, we boondocked with other RVers out on BLM land. Our cell phones didn’t work, we had no television reception. Just some books, our guitars, our bikes and lots of hiking. Since we had no TV, we really didn’t know what was happening in the rest of the world until we went into town. Also, since we were boondocking, we lived really cheaply. One month we got by on less than 400 dollars. And, we didn't even feel deprived of anything!
I bet there are folks living out on that BLM land right now who are totally unaffected by what is going with the economy. And I’m sure it’s a liberating feeling. We feel secure knowing that if we had to, we could go back to living that way. And it would be just as much of an adventure as it was the first time around.
That’s when we really learned about living green.
Our tiny household mostly ran on one 50 watt solar panel hooked to a house battery. We filled up our 40 gallon holding tank once a week along with about 10-12 gallon jugs of water. The sun heated our water for the most part (except on freaky cold and windy days, then we boiled some water on the propane stove). Meals were planned for an entire week, and we didn’t go over our budget or waste any food. We became very conscious of our resources.
Life was simple then. The exact opposite of the more complex world we have now created for ourselves. We’ve spent the past few years constructing our lives so that we can spend quality time in both worlds. We believe that each has so many positive attributes and we don’t want to be left out of either. Each has its own lifestyle and qualities, attracts certain people. And through having a foot in both worlds, we feel whole, balanced.
So we continue tweaking and adjusting our life and goals to figure out how we can travel on our own schedule while working--but without overworking, so we have time to enjoy our adventures and be able to afford both lives. All the while being mindful of our career goals, to ensure maximum happiness in that world too. Small sacrifices are made on both sides, but we feel that it gets us closer to our happy medium.
As long we keep our wheels moving forward, we’re heading in the right direction.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
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2 comments:
Well guys, only you know what works for you. Now that you've lived a simpler life you at least have something to compare your current life situation to. It will be a lot easier to keep your priorities straight and not get sucked into the consumer trap that so many people do.
But I'll tell ya, we are here at the NuRVers rally, and there are five couples, all of us living sustainable lives from the road while working on our career/professional goals. We've got two writers,a programmer, a photographer, a journalist, makeup manufacturers and jewelry makers. Ages range from 26 to uh, somewhere just north of 40. The cool thing is that all of us are finding ways to make a decent living while being able to go where we want, when we want, and call our own shots.
Jim and I never thought that life could be so good. We will probably keep it this way for the forseeable future. For us, that works.
Came over from Twitter. Hubby and I full-timed for a year, then realized just what you did. We're in the process of selling our home now. I wrote an essay on my website about this process, The Upside of Downsizing. If you find it helpful, hope you'll tweet it.
http://doreenorion.com/orion-upside.htm
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