Let go, Exchange, Embrace

Two years ago, I was truly overwhelmed by life and responsibility. Somewhere I came across a phrase that said "Haz menos, pero mejor" which translates to "Do less, but better." It was so simple and just made sense. I decided that the only way to chill my sense of overwhelm was to drop some of the things I was attempting to do and focus on what I had to do.

Once again I am in that same situation. I want to embrace a simpler life and now is the time to ...

Let go of some things and exchange them for the things I want to embrace.

It was late at night when this idea started to roll around in my mind. "Do less but, better. Do less but better". So, I got out of bed and jotted down the idea before drifting off to sleep. The next morning I filled out the details and decided what areas of my life need to be let go of - or exchanged. I decided on three things: a traditional garden, mainstream social media, and lazy mornings.

That first one - giving up the garden - pains me. I have tended to this garden for years after all. But, I need to finally own up to the fact that gardening takes a lot of time and this garden is very challenging. But, remember, this is about letting go AND exchanging. Instead of letting go of gardening entirely, I am going to focus on a a small collection of potted plants and letting that old in-the-ground-garden lay fallow (and hopefully recover for the next gardener who lives here).

Maybe I should explain exactly why I need to let somethings go. If you have been following my blog you will know that I live in one place and am building a house in another. Doing a DIY build is challenging under any circumstances. But building a house while also tending to a huge yard, garden, and forest is a challenge I can't gracefully take on. It kinda came down to deciding if I want to have a garden or do I want to finish my house.

I want to finish the house!

Look how far we have come in less than a year. It will be a full year more before we are ready to move in but, it could be even longer if I let my gardening and social media goals take over. That leads me to something else I have to let go of: mainstream social media.

Since I became a fulltime content creator about a year ago I have tried to keep up with instagram and youtube, even creating original content for both. It just isn't worth it. I have never had much luck with instagram and only a tiny bit with youtube. In general I don't feel like I have the time or energy to keep making videos about herbs and crafts.

This is a hard one to give up entirely as well! For some reason I feel that the videos I make have the potential to outlive all the posts I have written. While blogging is much easier and aligned with my lifestyle, I feel that the future of the internet has a lot to do with videos. So, as a compromise I will make videos from time to time on the subject of my building project. Does that count as hitting two birds with one stone? hope so!

And now the last thing on my list: ending my lazy mornings era. I love to live a slow life and have a work/rest balance but ... to be honest ... I think I was resting a bit too lately. Yes it is nearly winter but, there is no reason to wake up at 10 am and then smoke a joint while listening to mindless entertainment on the weekdays as well as the weekends. I am really lucky to be self employed as a writer/herbalist/candle maker which gives me freedom to work whenever I want but, waking up late only leads to staying up late as I rush to get everything done before bed. And then the cycle continues as I struggle to wake up early the following morning.

I chose this image of a single lit candle for this banner of this post because I think the imagery encapsulates what I am going for here. As a homesteader and homemaker the to do list is always lengthening. There is always something more to do, just like the jar full of candles in the background, and the box of wax & wicks that I still need to make candles with.

I have learned something from years of working several jobs. And that is to simply focus on a few things that I do well and let other things go. To focus on one task at a time and to set myself up for a successful life by cutting out unnecessary distractions.