I mean, I am not the kind of woman who buys and loves receiving luxurious items such as branded bags, shoes, and clothes. Ask me about the brand name or the collection name, more so, the price - I would not know! I do not even care to know!
I remember one time when my really, exceptionally rich aunt toured me, my mom, and my uncles in her classy house located in one of the posh villages in Makati and we reached her air-conditioned room full of bags and shoes, she was telling me the brand and its name. She was telling me as if I know everything what she was talking about. But I really do not know! I just keep nodding my head as if I completely understood her. By the way, she was not bragging when she was doing all that. She is actually one of the very few who is rich and also humble. She was probably doing that because we saw her rise from rags to riches. We were there for her and her family when they were not so well-off. And now that they belong to the high society, she does not forget to go back to her roots and reach out to those who have always been there for her.
Anyway, as I was saying, it only takes so little to make me happy. I am not saying that you should think of me as a candidate to be a saint. Maybe, all I am saying is that, (aside from the fact that my entirety is not wired to adore luxurious items and more so a luxurious lifestyle), any person, I can confidently say is wired to live a really simple life. Put a human being into a forest with enough fruit-bearing trees and source of water, she can survive. After all, humanity started that way - so little and yet so enough to survive and even thrive!
I am saying all these after a recent and sort of a major change in my life happened - I moved into a dorm closer to work.
As I was moving out from my studio-like apartment, I could not help but feel overwhelmed with the so many things I put in there - coffee table, treadmill, bookshelf, washing machine, microwave, electric stove, oven toaster, huge mirrors, and so many more.
It took me more than three times of transporting all these from there to my home in the province.
And since I already completed the transfer of all my things, I now would have to face putting each in order at my parents’ house.
Then, I realized - it only takes so little to live! I kept telling myself as I was trying very hard to put everything in order, “I do not need all of these!” or “Why do I have this? I already have a lot of this!”
I started thinking how many of my things can be potentially put into waste after some time. And then, it started making sense to me - what my father told me when I was in high school (or maybe college or maybe when I started working or maybe all those moments! Hehehe). He said something like, “the joy of simple living.” Of course, the self-centered kid that I was, pretended I was listening and just shook it off. Little did I know that, it actually stuck into me!
My dad, though he comes from a rich family, is one of the simplest guys I know. He is not at all the senorito type (well, a bit. hehehe.). I mean, like me, he is happy with simple things. He is happier when he is in his backyard, planting vegetables, fruits, and decorative plants. I could say this because he does this everyday! When he is out of the house or has to go out of the house, he worries for his pigs! He worries that no one will feed his pigs even if there’s a house help who can do the feeding. Oh, I should not forget - he is most likely the happiest, when he can fix broken things or when we, his family, ask him to fix this, fix that. How I adore the simplicity of my dad! By fixing broken things, we are already saving money and of course our dear Mother Earth. Not only does he fix broken things, he likes inventing stuff from whatever things he can find at home. He would use the bottle of Coke to plant something, or the plastic container of a dishwashing gel as an “ice tray” or the electric fan stand as a bike holder (or whatever you call that thing that holds the bike when you are trying to fix it).
Maybe, by not saying many times to me the joy of simple living and just by showing it to me, my Dad was already teaching it to me. And now, I am starting to imbibe it as if it has always been my nature. But God knows, no! I used to buy a lot of unnecessary things. Of course, what did I know about the fact that when you buy a lot, you also consume a lot of earth’s resources which could have been used for a better and longer lasting purpose. I was just this self-centered person who only cared about my needs and wants.
Now, this thing about “eco lifestyle” that I have heard before but did not understand is starting to make more sense to me! Eco lifestyle could also mean living simply - having less and using only what is needed. Eco lifestyle could mean a lot of things to many different people. But for me, it means living simply and desiring less. After all, living simply and desiring less are what we only need to live happily.
No comments:
Post a Comment