Getting My Zen On By Living Simply

If you ever pass by me and I’m chanting, it might be an indication that I’ve taken this simple living concept a bit too far.

I keep hearing statistics which should scare the hell out of me, and you, like 50% of Americans, if faced with an emergency which would require a $1000 payment from them, could not meet that requirement.

Like the previously mentioned 40%-60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

Like 40% of American children are living under the poverty line.

I knew none of these things when my wife and I sold our home and moved into buses. I simply knew I was done playing the game. I was done living Social Security check to Social Security check with very little left for extras, and I was done chewing on the what ifs as I reviewed my life and related to closely with the “mass of men living lives of quiet desperation, “well on my way to “going to the grave with the song still in me,” to paraphrase Thoreau.

I was done believing that the U.S. is a democracy. I was done believing that the U.S. economy was an example of capitalism.

It’s all smoke and mirrors, and I just don’t buy it any more. The true believers can march to the voting booth and believe in what they are doing. The true believers can support the WalMarts and the Microsofts and believe the profits will trickle down to them. I wish them all good luck. I really do.  But I’m not buying any of it.

It takes an adjustment to go from the rat race to no race at all.  We are programmed to be good little worker bees and to contribute to the health of the economy, programmed so effectively that we don’t even realize the game is rigged.  Now that I am out of the game, and able to spend time studying the rules of said game, I see it for what it is, and I want none of it.

Which brings me to the Zen and how I arrived here, in this state of peace and tranquility, a place where it is perfectly all right for me to just be.

The how is easy to answer: I gave up. I surrendered. I recognized the futility of constantly doing something in the same way but expecting different results suddenly, as if by magic, and I came to terms with the fact that I had lived most of my adult life trying to be someone who would be accepted, who would be liked, someone who went against my grain to simply appease others and who could no longer, in good conscience, do that, no matter the cost.

I literally went from a mountain of responsibility to only one responsibility: take care of my dog!

I’ve heard others say they could never do what we did, and they have a variety of reasons why they cannot, and I suspect many of those reasons are valid, be it children at home, buried in debt and needing to make a certain income, child support payments, taking care of aging parents, really, the reasons are many and most of them are valid . . . but . . . I suspect there are still many who cannot take the type of leap I did because they are afraid to do so, or they are so comfortable wallowing in the muck of conformity, that they cannot imagine ever leaving it.

And there really is nothing I can say to any of them which will alleviate the fear or drag them from the sofa long enough to contemplate freedom from the failed American Dream.

Can you imagine, and I’m serious with this question, waking up and having no responsibility? Having no worries? Having no weighty decisions which feel overwhelming? Having no stress? Having no obligations?  Most of you, if you are being honest, cannot imagine what I just described, no frame of reference, no way for you to even imagine it.  But I’m here to tell you it is possible.  Will it take some tough decisions? Yes! Will it be scary along the way? Yes! Will the doubt, at times, almost be crippling? Yes!  And is it worth it once you do it?

Oh my God, yes!

My Zen existence is a direct result from adopting Simple Living.  I have scaled down my life to a very manageable level. I live according to need and not want. I concentrate, and spend time on, the things which really matter in life.  You may not be able to drop out like I did, like Bev did, but you can still take steps to simplify, to cut back on financial worries, to cut back on obligations which drain you and take you away from doing things you really want to do.  You can still do those things!

And I hope you do! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go sit outside and chant.

Buy me a coffee in support? Go to that site, Buy Me A Coffee, and search Bill Holland.  Coffees cost $5. Or become a patron for only $3 per month.  Support an old man as he tries to spread a positive message online.