I find my self, at the ripe young age of 53, in a place where I’m trying to unlearn much of what I’ve been taught all of my life.
Unlearning things:
- Being super BUSY is a sign of success.
- Don’t make it – buy it.
- If it’s broken, torn, or ugly – throw it out for gosh sake and buy a new one.
- Why grow it when you can buy it?
- Why fix it when you can buy another?
- Why buy it when someone else will make it for you?
- Buy more. More than you need or will ever use.
- Buy a bigger house or get a storage unit to store all of the things you bought but aren’t currently using.
- Credit card debt is an expected part of living these days.
All I’ve got to say is that I’ve learned in the past few years that this is all HOGWASH. (BTW, if you need hogwash I have a 5 gallon bucket I bought on sale that I can share. There is plenty to go around.)
Thing is, I’ve bought into the whole consumer culture without even giving it a second thought.
Maybe you have too?
But then. I woke up. Cancer, an empty nest, a whole bunch more medical garbage, as well as a sense that our planet is in deep distress and I’m remembering that not only did I learn to be a CONSUMER but there is also in my lineage the PRODUCER.
Both sets of my grandparents were farmers. My mother’s side produced and put away what they needed to live on. On my father’s side, it was a cattle farm where they produced beef for local markets as well as food to put by.
I own a rocking chair that was handmade over 100 years ago by someone in my father’s family and another rocking chair that was handmade for me when my mother was pregnant with me.
HANDMADE!
I remember a root cellar chock full of jars of preserved food, bins of potatoes and onions, crocks full of pickles. Fresh milk and eggs along with homemade bread with fresh butter on top. I still remember the delightful taste of fresh lemonade on a hot summer day.
I have taken all of this to heart lately. I’ve stopped buying anything I don’t need right now and I have started to take a critical look at what I think I need and realized that some of those needs are really wants.
I’ve made some pretty crochet pieces, nearly mastered the art of sourdough bread, making my own beauty products, my own herbal preparations and yes, producing my own eggs, fruit, veg and much more.
It all TASTES so good and costs less or about the same as the stuff I can buy already prepared. The best part though is that I know EXACTLY what is in the products I use.
My eggs have no hormones or antibiotics, my beauty products aren’t tested on animals and much of my medicine is grown, organically, here on my property. I did have to go to the doctor once this winter for some antibiotics when I got my annual round of bronchitis but other than that I haven’t been sick at all this winter.
All of this to say.
We’ve been conditioned to buy almost everything we use. And we are paying for it. A serious debt load, impacts on the environment, and health crises after health crisis and I don’t want to be a part of it any more.
I don’t want to be so busy that I don’t have time to enjoy a cool breeze and a cold beer while listening to frogs. I don’t want to continue to feel like crap day in and day out. I don’t want to keep giving corporations that are polluting our environment my money.
I want a better life and I’m will to learn whatever I need to make that happen. What about you?
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Great post. I just started making soap and shampoo bars. It is surprising how easy it is to make a lot of this stuff, how cheap it is, and how much physical and chemical junk you can cut out by doing so.