A Manifesto for a Simple Life
And some Herman
You’re probably wondering why I’m sharing this stain-splattered old photocopy of handwritten sentiments that could easily be considered cultural clichés.
Can I confess something?
I have spent most of my life learning about human potential in one form or another and admittedly I have never really been the person that posts inspirational quotes on her social media. I frequently use quotes in my writing, but I just wanted to acknowledge and position that reading this felt different to me somehow.
Do you ever read something and find yourself nodding or feeling a quiet giant YES in your body?
That’s exactly what happened and what I felt when I saw this on my friend Suzy’s fridge several years ago, (If you’re reading, thanks Suz!).
I ran across it again recently while cleaning out some old papers and it still rings true and wanted to share it with you. Curious about its origin, I googled it this week and it turns out the credit goes to a woman named Kelly Exeter:
“Feeling stressed and overwhelmed, I sat down and wrote myself what was effectively a wish list. I called it A Manifesto for a Simple Life, and it helped clarify a (clearly) deep-seated craving I had: the need to distil my complicated life down to only what was necessary.”
I’m so glad she did because Kelly’s words rang like a bell in my mind.
It was pointing to my life that was filled with the burden of excess….overflowing closets, drawers, books, boxes of files, a jammed-packed fridge, and a kind of matching unsustainable multitasking busyness. Maybe there WAS a better way to exist and for some reason, it seemed to be coming to me directly from this short manifesto.
But it’s safe to say something in me yearned for the simplicity of my true nature.
To lighten my load and find more balance or homeostasis.
Do you sometimes feel like you’ve somehow complicated things unnecessarily?
How do you even know?
There is one tell-tale sign.
You suffer.
You have trouble hanging up your shirt because you can barely move the hangers aside far enough to squeeze one more in. It feels like there is not enough closet.
Maybe there is too much stuff.
So today let’s just keep things simple. Walk together through these ideas for living a simpler life and just let them into our hearts, and keep things simple in our minds.
EAT LESS, MOVE MORE
If we eat less and move more will we be healthier than we are now?
Probably. I’m not interested in debating it because the research supports it and does make good sense. This is not about taking things to extremes because sometimes eating less and moving more can become complicated very quickly.
Holding this advice loosely, more as more of a general guide or manifesto we can all agree that we could all safely intend to consume less in general, and not just with our food but plastics, fossil fuels, technology, alcohol, recreational and prescription drugs, and all kinds of things that we do and put in our bodies and environment that make it more difficult for our bodies to heal themselves.
We can also probably agree that being in good health is an aspiration many of us share. It makes life more simple for us and everyone in our family. No hospitals, drugs, no doctors, no surgeries, no pain, no recovery, and no trouble qualifying for insurance with pre-existing conditions.
Wonderful.
But I will simply add, that as much as I wish that for everyone, sometimes the life that is best FOR us in the bigger picture is not necessarily pain-free or the easiest route possible, and may also include challenges like an illness or unexpected injury.
We experience contrast to learn. We consume too much and suffer before we realize we need to consume less.
It’s happening on a global scale.
Eating less and moving more would be well served with this outlook.
“Man sacrifices his health to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”
―Dalai Lama
I will add that food is a sensitive area for many of us that have struggled with weight, food intolerance, and disordered eating and it’s actually difficult to even know what to eat anymore. Meat? No meat? Dairy? Gluten?
It was admittedly a big part of my own healing journey to stay away from scales, diets, plans, and protocols that seemed to fuel my weight problems in the first place and take my mind off of ALL of them.
Beyond our ideas of the right and wrong ways to eat, I’m sure many of you would agree that it would be fair to say that the majority of us probably still consume too much food.
Too much EVERYTHING.
I’m guilty of this.
'“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”
Michael Pollen
I pinkie swear promise to never again judge you or anyone or their body size, or food shame anyone. I’ll also never judge anyone’s groceries standing in line at the store again, and nor will I tell anyone how to eat or share diet tips again. But since this sweet little list suggests it, I will admit that being mindful and even skipping a meal or two if I’m not feeling hungry or adding some planned fasting days into my week has been one of the most powerful practices.
The ancient practice of fasting is nothing short of miraculous.
When I feel moved to participate in a fast, I sleep better, my body feels better, my food tastes better, all body markers improve, I reduce inflammation, and small aches and pains heal quickly. I also love having a break from thinking about food, cooking, and food prep. In one single day, I feel lighter, more agile, younger, and more energetic. It’s like my body and the army of mitochondria get a chance to do their magical business of autophagy and seem to restore me to a sense of well-being that I could never have imagined by me simply not eating in as short as a 24-hour period.
The energy that normally is funneled to digestion is freed up to focus on all the other amazing things in my system and out in the world.
We’ve all heard these words before, but what if those two little inconspicuous words could do for us even a few of the things on the list, that make “eat less” a pretty wise piece of very doable and affordable advice?
It seems pretty unanimous that fasting increases our metabolism, lowers our blood pressure, and reduces insulin resistance, inflammation, cholesterol, and risk of cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular issues (FYI the #1 cause of death for men and women). It even slows our cells from aging and increases our longevity.
What’s not to love?
It will also reduce your grocery bill, and is it just me, or is the price of food getting a wee bit out of control? I heard the price of food is up 8% from last year already and last year it had skyrocketed.
Best of all, there is no charge at all when we fast.
Having said all of that….let’s EAT!!
Let’s slow down, be mindful and ENJOY our food.
Making food with family and friends and sharing meals is when food tastes the best to me. We had an amazing dinner sitting on the deck at the cottage together last night with my family on the water and it’s one of my favorite things.
When our kids are home we usually eat, then stick around to play euchre and laugh. It’s the highlight of my day.
Living alone can also be a party for one. Carefully taking the time to set the table or light a candle because YOU ARE the special occasion. Having said that, eating granola on the couch in your pajamas is a pretty nice perk to being on your own as well.
Making your favorite foods or growing a garden, eating whenever you want, and making a simple healthy meal are luxuries not everyone in the world has.
And as far as “move more” is concerned, I’m not sure many of us reading doubt the benefits or the science on this one, but any way you slice it, moving in a way we love just feels good.
Regular exercise is the world’s greatest wonder drug.
After years of chronic pain and being more sedentary, I’ve recently passed a threshold where the pain has subsided enough to inspire me to want to move again and get sweaty.
I feel different than when I skip it. Interesting.
Last week I met some of my friends for a Monday morning swim in the Bay and I left feeling tingly and happy. Elated. Fresh air and friendship.
My husband has a group of guys that he runs, bikes, and swims with he’s always really happy (and sweaty) when he comes back he has a giant smile on his face. They went to the track this week at a local high school, and there were about 15 of them.
These are free things to do so we don’t need to complicate things or even join a gym.
We can simply start where we are with the movement we enjoy doing.
Our boys use our garage as a makeshift gym and one of our sons has gotten really into great shape and has gained a lot of muscle this year, it’s inspiring.
I luckily have a membership at our closest gym up the road and I do enjoy lifting weights when I make the time. This week at the gym I noticed that there was a plank challenge on the whiteboard and many people posted their 3 or 4 minutes (impressive!), but my favorite was the guy that wrote down 10 seconds. He was the guy that made me want to try it myself. It doesn’t matter if we’re in bad shape, is all I’m saying.
We can start from where we are with what we have. Play around with what works best for you.
I’ve noticed that if I don’t do something first thing, there’s a good chance I’ll skip it if I get busy or if there are any kinks in my day. I’ve also noticed that if I can take things outside and squeeze in a sunrise or a mountain view along with the movement the ‘feel-goods’ compound exponentially.
If you’ve been sedentary for a long time or are feeling a bit lazy this summer, maybe taking a walk on the beach or the trail is a good place to start.
Walking is magical.
Or simply turn up the music in your kitchen at breakfast today and shake it.
I have a favorite memory of walking into our Grandma Elsie’s tiny kitchen one morning staying with her when she was about 87 with a painful bone cancer listening to Leon Redbone on a scratchy old player on her counter, holding the side of the kitchen counter and letting her body dip and move to the beat with a big smile on her face.
That’s what this is.
My heart melted and I can remember thinking, THAT is good living.
So eat less and move.
Or not.
YOU do you :)
BUY LESS, MAKE MORE
During covid, I read a book about a woman who didn’t buy anything for a year. Her book, “The Year of Less” chronicled Cait Flander’s journey. She found herself in her 20s and already stuck in the consumerism cycle that grips so many of us: earn more, buy more, want more, rinse, repeat.
Even after she worked her way out of nearly $30,000 of consumer debt, her old habits took hold again. When she realized that nothing she was doing or buying was making her happy—only keeping her from meeting her goals—she decided to set herself a challenge: she would not shop for an entire year.
She bought only consumables: groceries, toiletries, and gas. Along the way, she challenged herself to consume less of many other things besides shopping. She decluttered her apartment and got rid of 70 percent of her belongings; learned how to fix things rather than throw them away; researched the zero waste movement; and even completed a television ban. The TV ban might be a problem for me, I do love watching shows at night with my husband, but I will say I admire those of you that have been able to give away your television sets!
At every stage, Cait learned that the less she consumed, the more fulfilled she felt.
She realized why she had always turned to shopping, alcohol, and food—and what it had cost her. Unable to reach for any of her usual vices, she changed habits she’d spent years perfecting and discovered what truly mattered to her.
Her book left me questioning my own life.
What have you been holding onto that you could let go of?
The conclusion I came to for myself in short order was…A LOT.
Another woman who had an inspiring impact on me lived in New York City and only made a mason jar of garbage in 5 years…less than most of us make in a day.
Here it is. Ta-DA…
What? How can this be possible? Lauren Singer is her name and if you’d like to read about her inspiring journey: https://trashisfortossers.com.
This one IDEA feels like a hidden gem for all of us.
Researching I spent some time looking at photos of landfills and I’ll spare you that sadness today, but that alone had me feeling the weight of this one on our planet, and rolling the garbage to the curb this week had me thinking that our family could definitely do better.
Since covid I have been consciously mending and fixing things - even pants that I would have tossed before, now I enjoy sewing them and it feels strangely good keeping them in circulation and wearing them until they are too threadbare before turning them into soft rags. It’s incredibly rewarding as long as my stitches hold otherwise, it may also be embarrassing. Feels exciting and risky.
Or bringing not just our bags but jars to places like the bulk barn or refill stations and getting a deep discount for doing it on certain days of the week.
There are a few exceptions to this shopping rule for me.
Woodworking, painting, crafting, knitting, and making something that you could probably buy for $10 at the store, but instead choosing to go out and buy $79 worth of hardware, wood, wool, or craft supplies is also surprisingly satisfying.
That or finding something that fits and suits you perfectly at Winners (aka the Mothership) and paying a fraction of the cost.
Or better still, participating or hosting in a local clothing swap!!
A fellow Field subscriber and all-around amazing woman and dear friend Vicki Hall started She Shops Swap in Toronto https://www.sheshopsswap.com/ and exciting news if you are a Collingwood friend, she’s COMING here to the Blue Mountains later this month!! Please help spread the word…
I love when people serve our communities in sustainable ways.
I’ve mentioned this before, but as far as “making more” goes, is there something you’d love to make?
A hobby that you’re drawn to?
I’ve said this before, but I love woodworking with my Dad. He lets me pimp wood from his scrap piles in his shop and he lets me use his sanders and paper to make gifts for Christmas and all kinds of things. I went through a cutting board phase, then some wooden spoons. Time just flies and before you know it, there is sawdust everywhere and the smell of tongue oil on my clothes.
Any way you slice it, it feels amazing to make things, and when we feel GOOD we are aligned. Even just making homemade granola for my family can be soul-satisfying for me. Our elderly neighbor Steve across the road even makes the honey (of course the bees get all the credit really), but it feels extra special when I pour it on the oats.
Here are the projects my Dad and I (mostly HE) are working on right now…we’re up in North Bay today. I’m especially excited to work on the cottage “scorekeeper” which is a special gift for someone…I’ll be sure to post the “after shots” when it’s all finished for fun.
When is the last time you picked up a paintbrush?
My girlfriend Amy converted a part of her basement and laundry room into a bit of a makeshift art studio and she makes THE most incredible things on her days off. We have a piece of hers on our bedroom wall and it makes me so happy. I wish I was home so I could show you a picture of it. For Amy, it’s not about making money - it’s just a simple hobby in between juggling work and kids when she can, but it can also become a full-time creative endeavor when we follow our heart’s desires…
Here’s another local Field subscriber, a visual artist from my local town: Kara McIntosh. Here are a few of her incredibly colorful pieces to inspire you…
She works in layers and I love the resulting rhythms and patterns of nature in her pieces in abstract landscapes in an intuitive style. What I find most arresting about her work is the bright and unexpected colors (like pink!) that she uses in her natural compositions.
Doesn’t this make you want to pick up a brush and some paints at a yard sale this summer?
https://www.karamcintosh.com/
STRESS LESS, LAUGH MORE
It can’t REALLY be a coincidence that “stressed” spelled backward spells… “desserts”, can it?
Kidding, although I’m a proponent of feeling my emotions instead of suppressing them these days, apologies to my vegan friends if I’m offending your sensibilities, but good-quality Kawartha Dairy Moose Tracks cream in my experience DOES make things better.
We’d have to be living under a rock these days not to realize that stress is not just a sleep killer, it’s costing us our health and our lives. I heard on the CBC radio yesterday that if you are not relaxed for at least 10 of the 24 hours each day (inclusive of sleep) you are leading your immune system into a danger zone. Having said that, if you have trouble sleeping, please don’t fret…you can also be IN your parasympathetic system in your waking hours.
What could that kind of effective relaxation look like for us?
Do we need to get ourselves into somatic domes or listen to binaural beats inside float tanks in delta meditative states? As amazing as that would be, you have all you need to do for being relaxed can even be done at a traffic light.
Alpha is the desired state. In Alpha, we feel calm, immersive, and functional.
You can focus on a single problem and complete creative assignments. You may feel yourself entering into the flow state, engaged with your work and thoughts — focused yet relaxed. You may not notice time passing by.
How do you get there?
Quite simply.
Take a deep slow belly breath. Exhale slowly.
Done.
Another quick way favorite way is to gently touch your lips. Your lips have parasympathetic fibers spread throughout them, so touching them activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Take one or two fingers and lightly run them over your lips. It’s why our kids intuitively know to trace their faces and arms with their blankies and stuffed animal tails. (Caveat: you may want to do this in private or risk giving your co-worker the wrong impression in your shared workspace:)
I guess the bottom line here, is if you are under constant stress and the best part of your work life is that your chair spins, it may be time to reconsider your options.
Even in retirement, we can bite off more than we can chew. When your company, conflicting golf, pickleball, or dinner dates are keeping you on the run or up late, you may want to ease up a bit to make sure you have enough downtime to reset your body and mind.
One thing I’m guilty of and why my cortisol levels can be sky high during the day is that I multitask. Well, I suppose it’s my superpower. I mean, what harm could there be in working, making dinner, doing laundry, and planning your family vacation while talking to your mother on the phone?
As far as our bodies are concerned, I’ve learned the hard way that over the years it does more harm than good. Research clearly is showing now that we’re MUCH better off doing a bit less and taking things one at a time for most of the day.
“When reading, only read. When eating, only eat. When thinking, only think.”
Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn
When we do we’re most likely to notice little things.
We even laugh more and are more likely to find and see the funny.
Laughter is magical for all of our systems.
I confess this one is easy for me because my husband is hilarious.
Our funniest family members, friends, children, and even our pets just being themselves are doing us more good than we realize because the world and our lives can be so serious, some days with the world news and it admittedly is hard to find things to laugh about.
This week I spent some time with a family whose son sadly has been given 2 months to live. The house felt heavy with that grave reality. And yet surprisingly, there was laughter too. It can be with us always, even on our deathbeds if we allow it.
Who is that funny someone in your life that makes you belly laugh?
You may have noticed the intentional spattering of cartoons today. This particular old cartoon “Herman” was a staple in our house growing up. I loved when my Dad picked up a new edition because it meant that we would soon be hearing him laugh out loud.
Best. Sound. Ever. He was usually quiet and focused or even hard to reach in his world sometimes, but Jim Unger’s ‘Herman’ always got through. His laugh was a balm to my young ears and it made me want to be funny to make others laugh.
Our own children’s laughter can feel like a balm to our Souls. Hearing a baby laugh is the best or a 3-year-old bust a gut will have us laughing out loud.
There is summer laughter coming out of our neighborhood yards when Scott and I take a walk in the evening. In particular, I enjoy hearing our little neighbor Sloane next door playing-it’s a beautiful sound. My husband handed me this today (I believe it was originally a paper airplane) that she creatively flew over the fence to me SOS style…
That says ‘Nona’ and ‘Sloane’ with backward “n’s and “a’s”. We sometimes talk through the fence or call to one another if we’re both out in the backyard or our respective hot tubs but this cryptic paper airplane was a request for a playdate.
I saw another Field reader and Mom post a skipping challenge with her daughter on Instagram this summer. They jumped side by side and I especially loved the videos where they would burst out in laughter.
Are you having any fun these days? Maybe it’s time for us to send out some of our paper airplanes to the friends in your life that makes you laugh and even return the favor.
Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow internet to see who they are.
Will Ferrell
FEEL BLESSED, LOVE MORE
This week I had the pleasure of making a new friend named Anna.
She recently moved into the local retirement home and immediately joined our knitting group. I’m so grateful she did, she’s such a light. While we all knitted and the banter naturally flowed it seemed like she was doing most of the talking with everyone asking her questions, curious to find out more about the “new girl”.
Anna has 3 children that are very good to her. They visit her often, a son in Owen Sound and one in London, and a daughter in Kelowna B.C. When she was asked how she met her first husband she told us she met him in Germany. She grew up in Poland and was captured by the Germans in WWII and forced to do heavy labor in a camp moving coal and sorting rocks. What the??? I suddenly stopped knitting and listened more closely while I silently wondered if maybe she was confused. How could she be old enough to work in a labor camp? My sketchy mental math kept coming to similar conclusions, but how?
She was as sharp as a tack.
Then I learned her age. She’s 101.
Her husband sadly passed quite young so she remarried and then also outlived that second husband. When one of the women teased her, “What are you doing to them?”, her joking response was “I loved them to death”.
We all had a good laugh. Interestingly the woman sitting beside her on the left was on the other side in World War II. She is German.
They have become fast friends.
They have transcended their shared History. There is no lingering resentment or hatred. Just friendly companionship.
By the time I was packing up to leave, I noticed a teetering pile of carefully and perfectly unique colorful lap blankets ready to be delivered to the hospital that these two women have been working on with donated wool in their spare time.
It felt to me like love and appreciation were knit into those blankets, in both of them, in me, and all around us. 80 years ago they would have been on the opposite side of a war and now they are sharing wool.
Making things together and loving one another IS a blessing.
For the maker, the giver, the receiver, and anyone witnessing.
Once again, I walked out of the building and into the late afternoon sun with tears in my eyes. I stopped walking and lifted my face to the sun and paused. I just felt it all for a moment and nothing else and I was flooded with love.
A deep peace was felt in the core of my being.
I felt blessed just spending an hour with them.
To help me with my course creation I’ve been doing some research on our brains and I’m reading a great book right now called “Becoming Supernatural” by Dr. Joe Dispenza. Do you know as a scientist what his most popular or downloaded meditation is called?
“Blessing the Energy Centres”.
Yes, a blessing. You read that right. As in, “a prayer calling for divine care, protection, or favor”. Approval. Encouragement. Actively blessing our energy centers matters because our intention affects what we are blessing 100% of the time.
To be clear, love is not simply a feeling or a human emotion, which we often confuse with romantic love. Love is beyond what we can even comprehend, it’s quite literally all there is.
It’s another word for the source of creation or God.
Here is what is shared in the introduction to the channeled text: “A Course In Miracles”:
⁶The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. ⁷It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. ⁸The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
2. This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:
²Nothing real can be threatened.
³Nothing unreal exists.⁴Herein lies the peace of God.
I have the best job. Next weekend I’m marrying a young couple from two different cultures and backgrounds and today I’m creating their ceremony script to blend them in a new way. It’s creative. It feels good. It struck me that even if the content of the ceremony is similar, no two weddings are alike.
When I asked the couples and a few family or friends “What makes them so great together?” their responses give me a sense of their unique bond.
This particular couple met in a dog park in Toronto, their dogs bonded first. Since I don’t publicly advertise my services or even have a website it also seemed like perfect synchronicity that they found me through another dog park friend.
When we’re open to it, love seems to find a way, and not just the romantic kind, it’s all-encompassing when we consciously look for it like the funny, we find it every SINGLE time.
FIND A QUIET SPOT EVERY DAY
….& BREATHE
Quiet in today’s world is something that is not natural to many of us. And yet it’s only in the stillness that we can hear our own knowing and guidance.
Our quiet spot can even be sitting in the car.
Sometimes on my way to work, I like to take a quick detour to the waterfront. I park, roll down the windows, turn off my vehicle and radio, and sit quietly to enjoy the view of the water and the mountain. I often get my ideas there for writing topics, in fact, more inspiration comes to me in those few minutes than most of the busy day.
Most of my Mom friends with young children only have a few moments in a washroom with a closed door by themselves. They take it and love it. Sometimes they text funny photos in our group chats and it makes me laugh out loud and remember how sacred having a moment alone can feel when we’re dripping with young children.
I confess that even with a quiet spot I still to this day have trouble quieting my mind. Learning to meditate or sit still did not come easily for me.
This week I had a special session with a woman who is also a fellow reader and Field member who is in the early stages of becoming a somatic and breathwork practitioner and I’m her guinea pig. We did a session together and it was transformative. After about 7 minutes in or so I had a very clear mystical vision and then tears flowed and the grief moved through me just with my breath alone. No thinking. No conversation. Just a safe space being held with love and curiosity.
I felt lighter when it was over.
It all came from breath and silence.
Enough said. I really DO see more with my eyes closed and I hear more in silence.
“Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on Life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.”
Amir in “The Kite Runner”
I hope today was a simple and helpful reminder that we can return to our own deepest yearnings in the form of our own personal manifestos whenever life threatens to overwhelm us.
Or when we lose sight and forget what matters MOST to us.
The news is an ongoing reminder that while we may live in a complicated world, life itself can be simple if we let it. And it seems I’m not alone in finding relief in simplicity. This manifesto has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media so it has struck a chord.
Did any of these manifesto points resonate with you?
Please simply reply to this message or comment below.
Even if you don’t do a darned thing about it - just reading this or thinking this way can begin to shift our collective energy.
So Bless you, and your messes and mine.
With love,
Rev Nona
ps. Netflix has a new show coming out at the end of the month by Dan Buettner that looks interesting and fits in well with this topic today…
https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/81214929
Good reminders to do what makes us feel good, because it is important. We so often prioritize our busy-ness at the expense of simple pleasures. Thank you for sharing that stilling your mind didn't come easily for you. Sometimes it seems like it must be easier for the people we witness already doing the things that we want to do. They have just prioritized and applied themselves. I always think, " If THEY can do it, so can I! And if I can do it, ANYONE CAN!
Daily practice.