WILDNESS LED TO MINIMALISM AND A TASTE OF FREEDOM
“Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilisation” (Charles Lindbergh) makes so much sense to my everyday dilemmas, raising our son.
When I became a mum, my life was turned up side down which is probably how most parents experience it. I was thrown out of balance and I was touched by wildness. Wildness as an untamed little creature 🙂 I believe that every baby is born “wild” and untouched by civilisation, relying on it’s instincts. Still, I see a lot of wildness in our three yr old son and some how this wildness points out restrictions that come with civilisation. Mostly, we make more work for ourselves, and here are some examples from my everyday life;
I wish I could stop worrying about my son staining his clothes and in particular the ones that doesn’t come off in wash. I can’t help asking myself, why waist time, money and chemicals on wearing stain free clothes?
Also, my son is still a messy eater and to avoid cleaning up afterwards, I remind him to keep his food on his plate again and again. He probably wishes I would shot up and let him be touching, feeling and smelling his food. We should probably all eat this way with engaging our senses fully. Eating on the ground outdoors as our ancestors wouldn’t require most clean up afterwards. A modern solution could be a dog that will “clean up” the floors but still he has to learn to “fit in” when eating elsewhere.
When it’s summer and he would like to paint, I take him outside and strip off all his clothes. You can see why 😉 But what do I do on a rainy winter’s day?
I also tell my son off when he’s drawing on the walls or furniture. Imagine if we’d homes where we didn’t have to worry about keeping the furniture and walls mark free.
This becomes an even bigger dilemma if you, like me, want to live more sustainable and minimise food and overall waste. We‘ve to look after our things if we want to follow the “buy and throw out mentality”. We should also take into account, the resources it takes to produce and transport our new purchases and on top of that, plastics and other synthetic materials won’t break down in nature. Our ancestors only used materials that would break down in nature and mostly used materials that surrounded them. They didn’t have to worry about how it’s produced or how to dispose of it.
I believe this is why I early last year suddenly felt this strong urge to live more minimalistic. I wanted fewer things in my life to organise, clean and care for. The last year, I’ve been giving away things that we no longer appreciate or use to friends, family, colleagues, opshops and on Freecycle.org. We also, buy less stuff and when we purchase new things we avoid plastics and buy secondhand when possible. We also choose food without or with less packaging.
The result is a decluttered home and we only send one rubbish bag to landfill every week. Both Merlin and I are surprised how little effort it takes, now that we’ve changed our habits. We also feel very empowered by needing less and breaking free from some of our addictions to our modern world. We have more time for experiences and use less time on shopping, cleaning and maintaining things.
Wildness led to minimalism and a taste of freedom.
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