Call me crazy, but one of the first things I think of when I’m pondering how to help people feel and function better is asking the question, “What would we have done 200 years ago?” We would have no idea what processed food was, we’d be going to bed with the sun and rising with the sun, and we’d know nothing of hormone-disrupting chemicals or blue-light from screens in our eyes until late at night. We wouldn’t understand commuting for 1 hour each way in bumper to bumper traffic only to sit down all day long. We might wind down in the evening by reading by candlelight, exhausted from hauling water, chopping wood, and cooking everything from scratch, which by the way would be food we grew ourselves, cows we milked ourselves and beef we slaughtered ourselves. I am as happy as you are for some of our modern conveniences, but I wonder if we might not begin to look at our lives and honestly assess which modern-day things have become way more of a burden than a blessing. I have just a few suggestions of some things we could begin to bring back into our lives just to enjoy more simplicity–
- Watch the sunrise and then watch the sunset in the same day, give thanks to our Creator, then do it again the next day.
- Pick some herbs or vegetables to grow this year, even if it’s just in a container on your porch, then eat them when it’s harvest-time!
- Take walks and enjoy being outdoors in the pretty weather this Spring.
- What can you think of that slows life down and helps you enjoy it more? There’s no better time to do it than now!