Why do we feel we have to be productive all the time?
It is very hard to give up the treadmill. We have been chasing the carrot for so long we refuse to believe we could survive living another way. Even when we are not productive we do things to help with our productivity. It is easy to be obsessed with doing the right thing all the time and constantly pressure ourselves to produce, devoted to securing the future for my family.
I love to create with words, food, gardens, colors - doesn't everyone. They don't pay off. What you love, your inner joy, is not important. The only thing important is production, captivity, my slavery. It is hard to turn from slavery where pleasure is not allowed.
Looking at our lives like a business we cut the overhead of living at every turn. We are not frugal, we are practical.
My responsibility to my family is to save money, my husband's is to make money, and together we work to reducing the need for money at all. We live on a little farm. We both work from home. You make money and save money at the save time. I started making jewelery in my spare time, making my pleasure productive allows me to enjoy my life more.
It is hard to break free, and it is always done in steps. Just acknowledging there is more to life than consumerism is difficult for most.
its all a case of priority
ReplyDeleteI work one day a week
look after a score of animals
and have to be content having 4 pairs of pants
You are so kind to comment and keep visiting me whilst I have been such an absentee blogger - thanks - peace
ReplyDeleteYes, life without consumerism does allow one to have more true freedoms doesn't it. What a beautiful deer. We have had two young deer hanging around are place all summer...as long as they stay out of the garden.:)
ReplyDeleteOMG ruth are you writing this for me?!! With my DH working for salary and me at the farm I FEEL the need to be working all the time -doing something productive, to not be a slacker. I have to remind myself that happiness and peace are the goal. I keep the susan polis schultz poem- Take The Power in a frame in my kitchen!
ReplyDeleteKris
It definately takes an 'act' to avoid consumerism .. that's for sure. The world holds a vortex and most people get sucked in to it without knowing what is happening. Buying just for buying becomes a subconscious effort. It's also what gives people jobs and fuels most of the economy .. only trouble .. people have strayed far away from the wisdom/reality of the lives our ancestors lived: saving for a rainy day, making do with what you have, living within your means. Seems a pide piper has hold of money matters in most homes across the land. He plies them with easy credit .. then watches as they collapse under the weight of such foolishness. There must be some conscious effort for balance. Because if there were .. the world as a whole right not would not be tipped and straddled with the gifts of pleasure island.
ReplyDeleteVery poignant Mrs. Mac, thanks for sharing you should post these words on your blog as they are very well said. Peace
ReplyDeleteThis is me too! I can't sit still and not be productive, without feeling guilty for wasting the time. It's no better than striving for more hours at work. You are so right! I need to sit still more and enjoy...but old habits die hard.
ReplyDeleteIrony lives in my house too . . . rest is part of living too - peace
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