Life Was Simpler Back Then June 11’06
Here is the perfect example of feeling nothing more than having a
good time, an occasion that I’ve often recalled for winning on the horses. It was about 22 dollars, a substantial sum then in 1973 at a pub in Lyttleton, near Christchurch. I had won on a horse I followed. It was called Spa. It was really just a hunch but I had bet on it before. Great stuff! I bought drinks for the friends I was with, Louise, Ian Miller and Michele,
my next door neighbours in MacDougall Avenue. Anyway the feeling I can recall is we were all there enjoying ourselves, nothing much else outside that moment, just buying some drinks, maybe daring to have another one, nothing else really to see to or worry about: no house, no family, nothing needing fixed, no work-related stuff. We were out for the day in that crystal-clear light at the end of summer that makes everything great, and life took us where it took us. I was probably driving my white Anglia van, and I had won on the horses!
Changing Lifestyle / Simplifying Life July 24 ‘06
How do people change their lifestyles in any meaningful way? Of course
there are the obvious ways such as moving from being a poverty-struck student to earning good money and getting a better place to live. What I really mean is how do people make decisions that will knowingly
bring change to the way they live.
OK, for a moment, let’s take a look at the big moves (good word!) in my life. There was moving to New Zealand which resulted in a huge life change from powerless student to budding professional. NZ was my oyster! There was the move to work at Wellington Polytechnic to expand my teaching career, then the move to Mackay, Queensland because I needed some change and was greatly attracted by the tropical lifestyle; moving to Tokyo and France then back to Tokyo. The rest is history!
What really interests me is how people come to make these decisions to change or improve. Do they have some powerful inner need to satisfy so that they somehow move beyond packing boxes or digging ditches or serving tables? I do not mean to belittle the latter at all, it’s a career job in many European cities. Or is it their jobs telling them there’s got to be more to life than this?
Do people experiment and/or follow a step-by-step process like air stewardesses – yes, the females – who have usually been in people-care
jobs such as looking after children or nursing before taking flight.
So it’s all to do with work, insofaras we have to do that in our lives to survive and advance. Perhaps we should look at how people get work in their lives, how people change through seeking a better job, through making friends at work, through getting money to allow them to make
decisions affecting how they live.
However, I have a sneaking feeling that some people change their lives
by being in touch with something deeper either from upbringing or from education. They simply want to help people. Maybe that explains why some people, many of them from well-off families, become reporters in war zones. It’s some kind of escape.
I know for sure that I could still change my life in a huge way by applying for Volunteer Service Abroad. Maybe lots of young people do that quite naturally, not that I would be young. However, I suspect many more helpers do it to further their careers, making their CV look good.
Difference between Now and Past Aug. 24’07
I’ve written about this before, I know, but it came up again tonight very strongly. My behaviour or what motivates most of what I do these days is very different to how I was say 25 years ago. Long ago I used to crave company. I would sacrifice almost anything if someone came into my sphere of activities. I suppose I must have been pretty hospitable, if only out of personal need.
That was unlike now where I prefer my own company, probably because
I have a lot of my own things to see to, be it the house renovation here in France, or the huge property business in NZ. There again I like to have my own time for reading, exercising, writing and other life-supporting activities. I would blame it all on meditating!
I like to get things done now. When younger I was more accepting of experience and letting things happen to me. Now I do the happening. I shape rather than get shaped!
Simplifying Life April 2 ‘06
I think it’s to do with having less to think about and more time to think. I have too many little bits and pieces in my life. There’s strength to be derived from consolidating the administrative aspects of living, thereby maybe providing more time for writing about the need to and how to simplify one’s life.
A few of Dr Mercola’s Simple Ways to Simplify Life Mar., 2010
Many of them I did not agree with and some of them I do already, such as “Keep a rubbish bag in your car” (Eh?) and “Eat healthier” (I’m a veggey!). Although I have hardly any clothes, I included “Reduce your wardrobe” here, perceiving it as sound advice.
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- Process email only twice a day.
- Get rid of (or at least reduce) commitments that you do out of obligation.
- Purge as much unneeded clutter as possible.
- Add items you want to a wish list as you think of them.
- Make time to catch up with an old friend.
- Just say no.
- Ask for experiences not things for your birthday this year.
- Tell the truth.
- Create an organising system that works for you.
- Carry a notebook and pen with you wherever you go.
- Unsubscribe from everything that doesn’t provide value anymore.
- Apologise immediately when you realise you’ve done wrong.
- Enjoy the present moment as much as you can.
- Take time to really see the little things in life.
- Reduce the amount of TV you watch.
- Get outside.
- Ask for help.
- Do things at home, such as eating, visits, entertaining, hobbies.
- Don’t get caught up in other people’s drama.
- Let go of the self-imposed need to be perfect.
- Focus on a simple, but healthy eating plan.
- Share responsibilities.
- Reduce your wardrobe to a few versatile items.
- Be positive.
- Finish old tasks before taking on new ones.
- For every new item that enters your home set two free.
- Want what you have, not what you don’t.
- Focus on one thing at a time.
Turn off your cell phone.