by Linda Hunter –
Is it just me or do the years seem to be passing by faster than the speed of light? Keeping up with life’s pace can be a challenge as we navigate the decisions that will move us forward in our slow living communal adventure. We continue to ask ourselves if there is perhaps a better way? More often than not, the answer is yes and involves not only going slow, but also going small, both of which appear contrary to the way of the world; faster, newer, bigger, better.
While I am not for one moment suggesting that we return to an earlier time before so many great and modern advances, what I am suggesting is that we might all want to ask ourselves what we can do to make things easier, slower and simpler, while still participating in a wonderfully progressive world.
For the past few years we have been implementing intentional changes to reduce our footprint, to bring pause to everyday living and to create a future with purpose, all while remaining as much as possible in the present moment.
Small changes made now will likely become second nature and move with us into this next chapter. These include walking errands rather than running them, using bars instead of liquid soap, adding “do nothing” to my to-do list, swapping glass for plastic, fixing what fails, washing more dishes by hand, parking further away from our meetings, drinking our tea more slowly, hanging laundry on the line, saying no more often, growing some of our own food, making soup instead of supper, owning less, sharing more and leaving part of the weekend for rest.
Being mindful of a more intentional way of living has made designing our small house in Shirley a wonderfully simple process. We began by looking at how we presently use our spaces, what we actually need in order to live well, what kind of footprint we want to have and what kind of legacy we want to leave. Keeping our answers in mind, we have, along with our designer, created a beautiful and basic home. The current layout focuses on sustainability and longevity and includes a private and a public side, seven loosely defined spaces, minimal measurements with maximum light, no stairs, no closets, little storage, few furniture pieces, wide openings, inexpensive finishes and thoughtful materials, all in an open and welcome design. Breathing life into this idea of collective contained living has given us time to catch our own breath. Now, with our eyes on a smaller and slower life and having cleared our minds, we can finally turn our thoughts to clearing the land.
Join Linda quarterly, as her family designs a plan to share a life which includes listening to the land and to each other, introducing themselves to the place and to the people, and living a communal future in Shirley, B.C.
