I am the kind of person always questionning herself.... Am I doing the right thing? Could I do more? Does this make sense? Is there a point? Does it helps anyone? Does it makes me happy?
I have very few expectations from life aside from being happy... that also includes my son and husband being happy!
Happiness to me does not include a big house, fancy car and travelling... for those of you who may not have get that up untill now... ;)
Saturday night, after putting my lovely son to bed, my husband and I had a nice discussion... I had been thinking all day... and so he knew I was up to something! What I had been thinking about was one sentence in a movie we all watched together Friday night. The sentence was (not necessarely exact quote) "sometimes the good decision may not be the good thing to do"... what does this mean? not quite sure yet...
What did this sentence trigger in me? Putting my year resolution in question!
If you guys remember, I had decided to do all this as a part of my personnal evolution and to be supportive of my husband... Also another motivation was to help environmentally.... I mean the earth is not going to heal itself without us changing our behavior, so I tought I try and help... And I hope to give my son a nice place to live eventually....
Now, what if I was doing all this for nothing? What if it was already too late? Or too little? What if I had no impact or anyone? Might as well shop, spend money, use my car, eat anything etc...
I mean there are no sure answer to all those questions... and my husband certainly did not have the answers either... But what he made me realize is that I have to do what makes ME happy NOW! After all it is my only expectation from life! So I have to go for it...
If what I am doing is enough or not? Who cares really? At least I am giving it a try!
If I am doing this for nothing? No becasue this is what makes me happy! Even if it does not have the impact I wish for... it is a beginning...
Is it too late? Probably not... as long as there is life, there is hope!
Too little? Probably.... but every small step count!
What if it has no impact? I can see an impact on my son! So if only that... It was worth it! And I have a few people reading me so I am at least playing with their minds... lol!
And my husband vision on that is, when I am going to leave this world, I should not have regrets!
So I have to live in such a way not to have any! And that includes giving it a try!
Trying a more sustainable way of living!
When you are looking for answers and are carefull for the signs, you get answers...
I got 2 of them...
We had a fire drill a 3h32 am Sunday morning.... so I had to pull my son out of bed, get all of
us dress and ready to go out quiclky... My son is terrified of fire... He used to tell me what if the appartement catches fires and he loses all his stuff? And this one time, his stuff never came up! He was more worry about
the people not coming out and the cats that we left inside...We were pretty sure it was not a fire since there was no smoke or smell or panic amongst any of our neighbours! When we were allowed back in 30 minutes later, I put him back to bed and he gave me a huge hug, a big kiss and told me "Maman je t'aime vraiment beaucoup"
There I knew I was doing the right thing!
The other sign came at lunch today, I am reading "How to go further" by Woody Harrelson and friends and the section I was reading today was on sustainable life changes... He made a lot of life changes since he was 23... and he claims he is not done yet.. there are still room for improvement. But he also truly believes that every little steps count! So it was good to hear that from an outsider.... not someone trying to cheer me up!
So as a result, I decided to keep on going... hey, might as well give it a shot!!!
What do I have to lose???
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Deck of cards
My son and I played cards tonight...
Along with the no shopping thing, we are trying to get to a simpler way of life... So, on school night, there is no computer, no video games, no ipod... and TV time is limited to 1h30min...
So tonight, because there was not much studying to do due to a carnival tomorrow and friday, there was lots of free time!!! So after practicing the guitar and before watching TV, there was time to play cards... we played for 45 minutes.... it was fun... quality time!!! And my son also got to looks at some books on his book shelves!
When I grew up, there was no computer or video games... they were wildly available in my mid teenager years.... We did not even have cable for most of my life... I was figure skating most night.... 4 out of 5.... but I sometimes wonder what kids were doing prior to TV and computer and ipod and all those things!!! it now seems that our lives revolve around the TV schedule... people do not go out, or make phone calls because there is such and such a show on TV...
I am fascinated by the impact TV has on us... I, for one, was doing this not too long ago... I have cancelled plans on occasion for a TVshow in the past.... and I got out of this habit when we did not have cable and were only able to get 2 channels for a couple of years.... I also noticed that whatever add is on, almost convince me that I need that stuff.... even thus I am not authorised to buy it for this year... :) I feel like the less TV I watched, the better I feel... I already stopped watching the news about 10 years ago.. and my stresss level really decreased by doing so... Now, I have decrease my TV time and I honestly do not miss it....
I must admit that I now have cable, I tought it was unfair for my son not to be able to understand what his friends were talking about... but I limit the exposure... or do the best I can to do so... and whenever he no longer lives with me, a few years down the line, or when he is OK with it also, we will not own a TV anymore....
I do realize that all technology do have some advantages.... I love to text people.. or write this blog, or search the net for vegetarain recipes or yoga stuff or vacations... but I guess it is like everything else... too much of a good thing can be too much!
What are your toughts on TV and technology?
Along with the no shopping thing, we are trying to get to a simpler way of life... So, on school night, there is no computer, no video games, no ipod... and TV time is limited to 1h30min...
So tonight, because there was not much studying to do due to a carnival tomorrow and friday, there was lots of free time!!! So after practicing the guitar and before watching TV, there was time to play cards... we played for 45 minutes.... it was fun... quality time!!! And my son also got to looks at some books on his book shelves!
When I grew up, there was no computer or video games... they were wildly available in my mid teenager years.... We did not even have cable for most of my life... I was figure skating most night.... 4 out of 5.... but I sometimes wonder what kids were doing prior to TV and computer and ipod and all those things!!! it now seems that our lives revolve around the TV schedule... people do not go out, or make phone calls because there is such and such a show on TV...
I am fascinated by the impact TV has on us... I, for one, was doing this not too long ago... I have cancelled plans on occasion for a TVshow in the past.... and I got out of this habit when we did not have cable and were only able to get 2 channels for a couple of years.... I also noticed that whatever add is on, almost convince me that I need that stuff.... even thus I am not authorised to buy it for this year... :) I feel like the less TV I watched, the better I feel... I already stopped watching the news about 10 years ago.. and my stresss level really decreased by doing so... Now, I have decrease my TV time and I honestly do not miss it....
I must admit that I now have cable, I tought it was unfair for my son not to be able to understand what his friends were talking about... but I limit the exposure... or do the best I can to do so... and whenever he no longer lives with me, a few years down the line, or when he is OK with it also, we will not own a TV anymore....
I do realize that all technology do have some advantages.... I love to text people.. or write this blog, or search the net for vegetarain recipes or yoga stuff or vacations... but I guess it is like everything else... too much of a good thing can be too much!
What are your toughts on TV and technology?
Monday, February 14, 2011
100 things challenge
At chapters, I came across this book called "100 things challenge" by a guy name David. This guy was also trying to get a simpler life (obviously, I am not allowed buying the book, so I visited his site and blog). A couple of years ago, he decided to spend a year with only 100 things that were his only. He made a set of rules, excluding family stuff like kitchen table, appliances and all those things because it was his decision, not his wife or daughter one. One rule was that he would select 100 things that he wished to keep and give everything else away. During the year, if he got a gift or wanted to buy something new, he had to get rid on an object in order to keep this new one. Another rule was that group of objects were considered one... like sock and underwear... there is not point in keeping only one of each and have to do laundry every day for a pair of socks and underwear... Less is not always more! In total, he was not allowed more than 100 personnal things. That was a couple of years ago and he is still going by that rule even thus he is somewhat more flexible with the number. As long as he remains close to a 100. Currently, on his site, there is 95 items listed. I tought that it was very interesting.
I find it amazing to see that many people are trying to change things around.... to give ourselves and our children a chance to a better life.... Obviously this guy made a book out of this... so it is being read and inspire other people, and if you look at his web page and blog, you can see other people also trying to get to a simpler way of life...
What I find cool is that it does not matter to what extent you do it... every small step count... step by step you can climb a mountain!!!
Even Oprah is having a vegan week for herself and three hundred and something of her staff...
Did you know that if everyone in America was to have one meatless day per week every week, we could actually change the quality of the environment significantly? How many of you are up for it? Just one day a week... That is only 14% of the time... if you exclude breakfast which rarely includes meat, it is only about 8% of the time!
Here is the link to David site and blog... take a look if you are interested!
http://www.100thingchallenge.com/
I find it amazing to see that many people are trying to change things around.... to give ourselves and our children a chance to a better life.... Obviously this guy made a book out of this... so it is being read and inspire other people, and if you look at his web page and blog, you can see other people also trying to get to a simpler way of life...
What I find cool is that it does not matter to what extent you do it... every small step count... step by step you can climb a mountain!!!
Even Oprah is having a vegan week for herself and three hundred and something of her staff...
Did you know that if everyone in America was to have one meatless day per week every week, we could actually change the quality of the environment significantly? How many of you are up for it? Just one day a week... That is only 14% of the time... if you exclude breakfast which rarely includes meat, it is only about 8% of the time!
Here is the link to David site and blog... take a look if you are interested!
http://www.100thingchallenge.com/
Monday, February 7, 2011
Truly amazing people!
The last week has been a roller coaster of emotions...
A person I care deeply about is going thru a divorce...
My husband was told that by best case scenario, he would be out of a job before 2012!!!
I have finaly said good bye and put behind me a friendship of 15 years because it was no longer satisfying!
All this keeping my regular schedule or almost... being my "smiling" self... I think :)
Obviously, the most disturbing new, is my husband loosing his job...
This comes in the life's 10 more stressfull factor (that's what they say!)... and it his hitting us AGAIN...
I lost my job 5 years ago, in similar conditions, and quite frankly, we did not handle it so well...
But we have greatly learned from all the mistakes we made... and this time we are prepare and have a "Plan".
A real Plan! And we will stick to it! No matter what!
This Plan was tought of before the news came out (we were kind of expecting it!), so it does not involve any
of the typical emotions related to such a news such as anger, fear, sadness, etc..
And quite frankly, after all we both went thru over the last years, we tought we were out of the woods...
But who is out of the woods ever??? I do not think this is possible... The woods is part of life...
Everything depends on how you handle it... we are prepared... we are scared of course... even
prepared, the unkonwn remains the unknown... we are sad because this is a 24 years experience coming to an end... but exited about all the opportunities that he is given...
So will get thru this.... together... rowing a boat in troubled water is much easier when you are 2!!!
On the other hand, I have been surrounded by amazing people cheering me up!
Offering to get in touch with contacts who could help him find something else!
One dear friend of mine, who litteraly does not have a minute to herslef, spent half an hour on the phone with
me Sunday afternnon trying to help me put things in perspective! And, I must admit, she was so right!!!
Annoyingly right!!! :)
My cousin, who reads this blog on a regular basis, but is not a follower send me a great email...
and it was so touching to read!
When I got to work on Monday, another friend of mine, inspired by the stitch and bitch club I co-founded had crochet me a really nice tuque!!! I was so happy about this!!!
So I went to this roller coaster of emotions thinking that normally, I would have handled this by going shopping and spending roughly 300$, that I would have make everything better (so I tought!!!)
but because of this "stupid" resolution we made I could not do it!!! I must admit that I almost did...
I was so close.... but I made soup instead... which I will have tonight!!!
Homemade soup from scratch vs spending 300$ of stuff I ended up not wanting : pretty sure I made the best choice!
So thanks to all of you truly amazing people (and all the others I did not specifically mentionned!)!!!!
You are helping us going thru this rough patch... and making this so much easier...
Love,
nath
xxx
A person I care deeply about is going thru a divorce...
My husband was told that by best case scenario, he would be out of a job before 2012!!!
I have finaly said good bye and put behind me a friendship of 15 years because it was no longer satisfying!
All this keeping my regular schedule or almost... being my "smiling" self... I think :)
Obviously, the most disturbing new, is my husband loosing his job...
This comes in the life's 10 more stressfull factor (that's what they say!)... and it his hitting us AGAIN...
I lost my job 5 years ago, in similar conditions, and quite frankly, we did not handle it so well...
But we have greatly learned from all the mistakes we made... and this time we are prepare and have a "Plan".
A real Plan! And we will stick to it! No matter what!
This Plan was tought of before the news came out (we were kind of expecting it!), so it does not involve any
of the typical emotions related to such a news such as anger, fear, sadness, etc..
And quite frankly, after all we both went thru over the last years, we tought we were out of the woods...
But who is out of the woods ever??? I do not think this is possible... The woods is part of life...
Everything depends on how you handle it... we are prepared... we are scared of course... even
prepared, the unkonwn remains the unknown... we are sad because this is a 24 years experience coming to an end... but exited about all the opportunities that he is given...
So will get thru this.... together... rowing a boat in troubled water is much easier when you are 2!!!
On the other hand, I have been surrounded by amazing people cheering me up!
Offering to get in touch with contacts who could help him find something else!
One dear friend of mine, who litteraly does not have a minute to herslef, spent half an hour on the phone with
me Sunday afternnon trying to help me put things in perspective! And, I must admit, she was so right!!!
Annoyingly right!!! :)
My cousin, who reads this blog on a regular basis, but is not a follower send me a great email...
and it was so touching to read!
When I got to work on Monday, another friend of mine, inspired by the stitch and bitch club I co-founded had crochet me a really nice tuque!!! I was so happy about this!!!
So I went to this roller coaster of emotions thinking that normally, I would have handled this by going shopping and spending roughly 300$, that I would have make everything better (so I tought!!!)
but because of this "stupid" resolution we made I could not do it!!! I must admit that I almost did...
I was so close.... but I made soup instead... which I will have tonight!!!
Homemade soup from scratch vs spending 300$ of stuff I ended up not wanting : pretty sure I made the best choice!
So thanks to all of you truly amazing people (and all the others I did not specifically mentionned!)!!!!
You are helping us going thru this rough patch... and making this so much easier...
Love,
nath
xxx
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
One down, eleven to go!!!
So here we go... January is over... 31 days not buying anything... and not has difficult as I would have expected! I did change the way I see things during this last month... honestly, to start off, maybe the first 10 days, I was somewhat not happy about that decision... and did not know if I would make it... and I was trying to find ways to get out of it with my husband! I even suggested the idea of gaining 10 pounds so I would have no choice but to buy clothes!!! For those of you who know how strict I am with my weight, this may come as a shock!!! Then, after I passed the 21 days mark, it became easier... I found myself with more free time... more ideas.. more creative tought! I even finished a collage and a scarf and started knitting a sweater! I also draw a mandala! I have more energy for my yoga and my meditation and do not feel the urge to get stuff to satisfy me!!!
I still even have that gift card for Les centres a la mode and cannot find a use for it... at least for now!
I am actually surprise at how much the TV, magazines, radio, newspaper and all we see and listen is oriented toward making you believe that you need to buy stuff to be happy! It is absolutely not true!
In one of the book I read, they were mentionning that you do not possess you material stuff, but rather it possess you... making you a slave to it... and since my newly found freedom, I must admit, that this is true... at least for us!
Now you guys can think about the relationship you have to your stuff.... it all you house/appartment was to catch fire tomorrow, what would you save? Dominique Loreau says that all you wish to save should fit in a luggage that you can carry by yourself... it is really the case?
I still even have that gift card for Les centres a la mode and cannot find a use for it... at least for now!
I am actually surprise at how much the TV, magazines, radio, newspaper and all we see and listen is oriented toward making you believe that you need to buy stuff to be happy! It is absolutely not true!
In one of the book I read, they were mentionning that you do not possess you material stuff, but rather it possess you... making you a slave to it... and since my newly found freedom, I must admit, that this is true... at least for us!
Now you guys can think about the relationship you have to your stuff.... it all you house/appartment was to catch fire tomorrow, what would you save? Dominique Loreau says that all you wish to save should fit in a luggage that you can carry by yourself... it is really the case?
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