Living Simply

I spent a few weeks away in a cabin, working on a project and trying to get some quiet.

The time spent there was awesome, and it made me realize that simple, minimal living is doable and it’s good.

I packed very little with me, I think I had enough clothing for a couple of days before I had to wash them. I also had just the laptop and charger, a camera, and a GPS as my electronics.

Having a small amount of clothing forced me to settle into this routine of having to wash my underwear and socks in the shower, and wash everything else once or twice a week. Add to this the daily need to go chop wood for the fire, since the nights were a bit chilly and the stove was the only source of heat, making these “chores” a must every day. It was actually rather therapeutic to do all this: wake up in the morning, get the fire going to make coffee, as the fire was burning and the water was boiling, go outside, get some of the wood chopped the day before, and pile it neatly by the stove. Then make coffee and sit in silence reading some news.

Then work for a few hours on my project. Stop for lunch. Usually, if the weather was good, I’d cook outside, by the fire pit, and eat there. This was followed by a small one to two hour hike, and back to work.

Then, early evening, I’d go outside and chop some more wood for the night and the next day.

Dinner would be inside, by the kitchen, where another smaller woodfire stove was ready to be used. A small meal, this was done under the setting sun with a bit of jazz playing from my laptop.

A few weeks of this. Living simply is hard to attain, but it is so good. I wonder if I can make it a way of life...