Great ideas. We’ve got a lot of other wildlife around and my place too. I’m sure he’d enjoy that.

Purposefully constructing my life and orientating my actions in a way that resists the emergent inclination of our modern society to add complexity to life without compelling benefit. Simply put, seeking happiness through simplification.This can look different for everyone. For me personally this means closeness to nature, friendship and conversation, minimizing my financial obligations which minimizes my need to work, limiting screen time and unhelpful technology, striving to be present and appreciative, slowing down and enjoying stillness, caring for what I have, releasing myself from pressure to be someone else’s “better” while remaining ambitious toward exploring my passions. These are just a few aspects that come to mind.

I carry a Leatherman Squirt PS4 in my pocket every day. It’s tiny and doesn’t add bulk to my pocket but is super handy and I use it all the time. Has spring loaded pliers and tiny scissors, a small straight blade and file, and both a flat Phillips head and broader flat screwdriver.

There are scanning apps that automatically crop the photo, let you make multi page PDFs, and automatically upload to your cloud of choice or directly to your computer. This has made it super easy for me. I’ve tried a few and settled on the one-time paid version Genius Scan and it works well for me.

Lol this is very true 🤣. Point taken

I like the idea of trying to come up with categories to fulfill. That’ll also make it easier to balance what we get each of them. Thanks!

Great idea!

Southern United States

Nothing currently. Been kicking around trying out OBOD or one of the other druid organizations in the USA. Options severely limited here in the rural southern United States, aka “The Bible Belt.” Unfortunately I feel like I have to stay fairly closeted to avoid persecution.

How beautifully written and happy Samhain to you all. All my love to all of you, those who have passed away, those who are yet to come, and the Wheel for continuing to turn!

I was following Light Phone for a long time but ended up not pulling the trigger. For me the hard thing to reconcile was whether ditching my smartphone would really make my life simpler or not. I really value having a good camera in my pocket to catch special moments instead of having to plan to take a camera with me. GPS maps means I don’t have to think about getting where I need to go. Having apps for banking, utilities, etc. Helps me take care of things on the fly and not have to spend time sitting at a computer sorting my affairs.

But smartphones have that temptation to mindlessly scroll reddit, watch YouTube, and Google things you don’t really need to. Sometimes having to use our restraint can be draining, so having a detox is definitely worth it. I’m happy for anyone who’s found what works for them to simplify their life and be more present and happy.

I say one thing about smartphones though, they’re getting to daggum big!!! I wish I could get a thin smartphone with edge to edge 4.5 inch screen. Small in my pocket, not big enough to entice over using, but capable for doing what I need. Someone make it!!! Best ive seen is the iPhone mini 13. Might upgrade to that when my pixel 4a dies.

Thank you and Merry Mabon to you as well ❤️

For nonbinary decisions, You can also tell it to roll a die of any size, like a d10, d20, or a fair dice that doesn’t mean exist like a D7. You can also just have it pick a number between X and Y, but thats not as fun haha.

I didn’t really get that sentiment from the article. To me the author seems to emphasize the importance of religion/spirituality as important for providing an “existential orientation,” although that point is somewhat obscured by their flowery, albeit precise, language. Though they do wrap up with that odd citation about having a cultural council, which seemed a bit out there for me.

Great article that discusses a lot of the good and bad of living an agrarian lifestyle. Simple definitely does not necessarily mean easy, but it can be rewarding by both qualities.

Something that comes to my mind is that you can definitely live a purely agrarian lifestyle like it were the 1800s or older as long as you take the lifestyle lock, stock, and barrel with it’s benefits and hardships; people have been living this way for ages. But, I think what most people want are the benefits afforded by this lifestyle (the simplicity, feeling close to nature, working with your hand, etc) but to also enjoy the modern luxuries we’re accustomed to (like technology, healthcare, etc), but it’s really difficult to make this lifestyle support these desires.

What’s worked for me is a hybrid lifestyle. I have a small house and a little land, I raise a big garden and my wife cans, so we grow most of our own food, but it’s not a business, though we sometimes sell to a local restaurant and on Facebook when we have extra. We work really hard and try to be frugal, but we both also work part time jobs to make money, which gives a better return on investment for our time than we can get trying make it Simple living lifestyle support our modern needs. So we incorporate modern life employment to make simple living feasible and comfortable, but strive for simple living to make modern life minimized and tolerable.

Have a great day everyone!

Playing Crosscode on a recommendation from a previous post when I was looking for an SNES style action RPG. It checks almost all my boxes. Great 16 bit graphics with smooth modern physics, lots of action, fun characters, skill trees and fun items, puzzles, satisfying combat. I’m having a great time with it!!!

Thanks for sharing this. Hopepunk and grimdark are terms that we’re not on my radar at all, but now reading about it I can look back and see the subtle difference in storytelling. Seems to me the difference come through not from the atmosphere of the work, but in the source of determination of the protagonist, favoring hope in humanity over bleak fortitude. There’s certainly lu carryover lessons for real life, that identical situations can be approached with different sources of motivation.

I hear you, and I’ve really enjoyed our discourse. I think we’re about 95% on the same page here, but you know how difficult trying to clearly communicate through text can be. I’m not sure I agree that how a society treats someone is more important than their internal sense of self worth, and that may be our sticking point that we can’t reconcile, but I’m not saying your wrong. That point is completely defensible, but not how I see things.

For what it’s worth, conversing with you has added value to my life and expanded my perspective. Though we’ve never met, and I’ll most certainly never shake your hand or look you in the eye, I value you.

I wish you and anyone reading this to be well and have peace 😊

Thank you for your well put reply, and I agree, your position is not without roots. Though, I’d like to humbly suggest that your points may actually support the notion that runaway modern capitalism does not effectively determine a person’s value. I would argue that the fact that a paragon can struggle economically and a grifter can swindle their way to high fortune shows that capitalism does not equitably reward good and punish evil. Therefore, a person should not allow their financial status (the value capitalism has assigned them) to be the measure of their personal value.

On the point of the system’s undervaluing of people and their work (which is absolutely true) making it harder to lead a simple life, I’m not sure the two are connected. Being compensated well makes things much much easier, but that doesn’t make things simpler. A person can live a very modest life that is simple, tranquil, and full of joy. Someone can also be extremely wealthy and ambitious with a fast paced life full of complexity, stress, and anguish.

I’m very sorry that youre feelings stuck. It’s frustrating and it absolutely can feel patronizingly when you’re struggling for better and someone tries to placate you with platitudes. But, the gift of simple living is that by appreciating the little things, removing stressful complexly, and slowing down, anyone in any situation can have more peace and happiness in their situation, even if it doesn’t get better.

Warmest wishes my friend and be well.

I find that I tend to spend a lot on just about everything I buy 😅. I have a lot of check boxes for the things I buy, like being ethically sourced, environmentally friendly, fair trade, look for B certified, etc. Consequently, I try not to buy very much. I’m sure I’m probably being taken for a chump with “green washing,” but that’s on them, not me.

In particular, I find that I spend more on food because I try to buy local and support small producers. I also try to get BIFL items when it comes to tools and things notice that I use frequently.