We live a pretty simple life but we live an extremely happy one. Voluntary simplicity is something that's been on my mind a lot lately. Scaling back, taking just enough, reduce/reuse/recycle, all that jazz. John and I have had some pretty serious talks about our values and things we think we do well and areas where we can improve. We have found that we have never felt more content in our lives and that may or may not be attributed towards our goal of living simply. Taking the time to make homemade products (cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, shampoo, etc), buying groceries & making our food instead of pre-made food or going to restaurants for every meal (this area we can certainly improve upon, as we like to frequent one of our local restaurants... let's chalk that up to supporting the local economy, mmmkay? ;), buying clothes & household items & furniture at the thrift store, less tv, more books/writing time, recycling everything, buying only "needed" items. Not only do we spend less money, but we find that our level of happiness has vastly improved. There are still many areas we need to improve upon, but for the most part we love how we live. We have learned that the acquisition of things doesn't make us as happy as some people would have us believe. We are far from perfect, but at least we can say that we're happy. As some guy named Gandhi said, "live simply so that others may simply live."
