Posts Tagged ‘Simplicity’

Stuff Diet in Review

From September 17, 2008 until September 17, 2009, Robert and I decided to go on a self-entitled “Stuff Diet.” Here is a quick overview of what that “diet” entailed (taken straight from the document) and some of our reflections on how we did.
The Stuff Diet Explained
Our Intent: An attempt to exercise our preferential option for the [...]

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The August Experiment

As August comes to a close, it’s time to reflect on our one month experiment of going through the month of August with only one car. This has been part of our deepening commitment to simplicity, sustainability, and solidarity–and the challenge was to figure out a way to live in Los Angeles and simplify down to [...]

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Guest Post: Overcoming Inertia

Here’s a post from my husband on his bike commute to work yesterday:
As part of our commitment to a month with only one car, I knew I wanted to do something that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time, but never had the courage to try–bike to work. As far as commutes go, [...]

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Getting Creative

We are currently swimming in zucchini from our CSA. It’s to be expected; after all, when the point in summer arrives that zucchini is thriving, it’s also taking over the garden (or, in this case, the farm). And zucchini is surprisingly versitile in its uses: fried with garlic, chopped up into soup, put into a [...]

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Attachment to an Outcome

Today was the first day that I really put our one-car-commitment to the test, biking farther than was convenient for me and, frankly, a little further than I mentally was comfortable with.  I had slept poorly last night, and woke up feeling cranky and tired. As I watched my husband drive away to work this [...]

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Walking the Talk…As Well As We Can

I’ve gotten a few questions about the status of some of the things I’ve posted about, so here’s a quick update:
The Garden: The garden is doing great! We’ve been harvesting lettuce for our own salads and really loving it. We’ve let a couple of stalks bolt so they can go to seed–hopefully we’ll be able [...]

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Our One Month Experiment

So over the weekend, as the new month began, my husband and I began our one month experiment of living with only one vehicle. Per our agreement, only one of our two cars can be in use at any given time. The other person needs to walk, bike, or use public transportation to get where [...]

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Kenosis

There is a word in Greek–kenosis–that is often used to mean the emptying of oneself. I remember a theology professor of mine once describing it like the carving out of a hollow space, like that of a bowl. Go into any theological library, and you’ll find writings on kenosis up to your ears (and then [...]

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Fiddle finagling and farm frenzy

So I pulled out my fiddle this morning to practice, and BOING! My G string, the lowest string, broke.  Practice postponed.

This gave me a great excuse to restring both that string and the D string, completing my restringing since nabbing the fiddle at the Pico Blvd. garage sale. I can’t tell you how much better [...]

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Simple Fun

Sometimes the way you plan things to turn out just isn’t the way that God wants them to be. That’s okay; the trick of responding faithfully is to figure out a way to be joyful anyway.
Today we had a wonderful day planned with the whole family–parents, sisters, nieces, and aunts–to visit a large sculpture garden. [...]

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