Thursday, December 10, 2009

I'm on top of the world!

Thanks for coming to my blog, and welcome to On Top of the World. This blog is al abbout living simply and frugally in Eastern Canada. This means that my posts could run the gamut from, "Brrr, it's cold in December," to "Brrr, it's cold in April," to, "Brrr, it's getting colder now that it's almost October!"

I tease. Sort of. There's a joke where I live that we have four seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction. So it does get mighty cold up here, and we all know it!

But there's more to life here than the cold, and I aim to explore it. I've spend a good chunk of my life living from paycheque to paycheque, from day to day, and to be perfectly honest, I'm rather tired of that life. It's hectic, stressful, and puts too much emphasis on what I can buy next with the money I just earned. Now that I'm in my mid 20s, I'm really starting to understand that there's much more to life than money and and possessions.

I used to panic a fair bit when I was younger, thinking that I had to "make something of myself" as soon as possible or else my life would be wasted. Well, I've got plenty of years left in me, barring unfortunate circumstances, and it's been lately that I've come to the conclusion that I don't need to go rushing off and doing everything at once. That's a sure way to an early grave. There's a reason that people say we need to take time to smell the roses.

But there's more to simple living than taking time to oneself. Simple living, to me, also means being eco-conscious. What may seem like a small thing to me may actually, in its process, be terribly complicated and harmful to the very planet I live on. So simple living also means buying locally and responsibly, making do when I can and making my own when I can't. It means not spending money where I don't need to.

But it doesn't mean that I need to deprive myself. I may not need to go and buy embroidery floss, for example, but I do need entertainment, and I enjoy crafts so much that buying some supplies is an excusable expense. It's possible to live a rich and full life without spending thousands of dollars doing so, and that's the way I aim to live.

So here's to the joys of living simply, and simply living, on top of the world.

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