Some people take a long time to close the gap between beliefs and actions. For me it’s taken 30 years. I first came to SLN in 1994 or 95, I don’t recall exactly given the time lapse. But I remember the trigger, it was the release of the admittedly trite but easily consumed “Simplify You Life” by Elaine St James. Which then led immediately to YMOYL, which I loved. And then here to SLN (not to be confused with SNL, as amusing as both can be). I’d always loved Walden, and Thoreau remains an intellectual beacon for me, but SYL was appealing to my then wife, and YMOYL really spoke to me in a contemporary sense. But there are a lot of choices that once made, you can’t take back. So for three decades I’ve been working high reward, high stress professions thinking I had to strike while the iron is hot. There will be time later to step back and focus on other things, but if you bail out now you can’t get back into the game. And it wasn’t greed, most of that effort went to providing for others. And now, after three decades, I find myself relieved of many of those obligations. The kids are launched, the ex is comfortable, and I’ve helped most of the people on my team who served me advance to their own stellar careers and opportunities. I intellectually knew this was coming, but I have to say the emotional rush of finally letting those things go as “one more year” excuses and just living life on my own terms is, if not overwhelming, fairly more turbulent (exhilaration, fear, anxiety, gratitude, etc) than I imagined.
So it’s nice to see that this little corner of the simple living world remains, even if just the playground for some old timers. In the social media age it feels a little like rediscovering some kind of lost Jurassic world. Cheers to all of you, and thanks for bookending my journey!
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Originally Posted by Yossarian
