These days I find myself completely absorbed by the multiple aspects of simple living, an idea I just stumbled upon short time ago on, where else, Mothering.com (this website is populated by amazing, unbelievable people who live their lives in the most conscious way). Now I am a devout. Of simple living, that is. I am going to start composting, making my daughter clothes from old T-shirts, uncluttering our living space to a minimum amount of things, and I am even willing to commit to The Compact. All the way. It feels empowering, it feels like the spring of a new life. It connects me to an energy pool that keeps me well spirited, content and suddenly, out of nowhere, happy about myself, liking myself, feeling pride and accomplishment, in a long-forgotten way.
As a result, I picked up from the library two books on simple living. One of them is Living the Simple Life by Elaine St. James. First I have to mention that from the beginning, the background of the author didn’t really give me any confidence in her authority on the matter. She is a real-estate person who was doing well in this field (wrote books on real-estate also) and suddenly felt that her life was too crazy and started simplifying, which also gave her another career idea – writing about simplifying. She doesn’t have her own children, living comfortably only with her husband. I am afraid that my perception is that she is not authentic and that made the reading of the book difficult and unpleasant for me. Also, she is not a good writer. She doesn’t put any sparkle, anything special in the way she throws her words on paper and that is a big minus for me too.
The truth is that I didn’t find anything much of value in the book. It’s just one of those simplified to horror, in steps, american-style books, which aren’t meant to be literature as much as manuals. I hate those books. Who ever buys that For Dummies series? Who? Who likes to be called a dummy and pays money to the people who do it? I honestly don’t understand.
What will stay with me is their family dinners, all planned for a week and repeated until completely worn-out, and how they eat for Sunday dinner popcorn, apples and cheese.
