With our ever-changing technological world, I never thought I would ever feel “out of the times”. It is really strange that, now that we have things like indoor plumbing and electricity, we end up taking advantage of the services that these things provide. We wake up in the morning and we make our morning coffee in our electric coffee pot, we cook our breakfast over our functional stove, we take a shower indoors, we go to work in some sort of transportational vehicle, be it a car, bus, or train, we come home and cook a leisurely meal in our gas or electrically powered oven, we relax with entertainment items such as the television or the computer..and all of these things are just supposed to be there like they always have been for us and the current generation; most of us have never gone without these items for more than a few days, or whatever it takes to repair a broken appliance.
Due to the economic downfall of a few years ago, I have gotten the rare glimpse into life without minor convenience–not on a huge scale or anything, but just enough for me to really appreciate having the things that so often I take for granted. Two years ago, we were living in a beautiful brand new house with all of the normal conveniences, as well as a prospectively nice yard in a great neighbourhood when the recession hit, turning our world upside-down for a bit. That year, we were laid off 3 separate times and money was extremely scarce. We ended up downsizing to a very small basement suite that had only a stand-up shower, a teeny-tiny refrigerator, and no oven, in a home riddled with mold, a leaking toilet, and just in general, a house in need of a whole lot of repairs. At this point we were fully employed again, but because of a lack of income all year, it took us almost a full year to catch up to where we had been before the financial trauma hit.
In general, I did very well. I knew our situation dictated that we would have to make some sacrifices for a while, so I chose to view our current situation much like long-term camping..you have only the barest necessities while you are out in the wild blue yonder, and you know just when you will be going “home again”. Although I didn’t exactly know when I would be going home, I did know that this was a temporary situation that would improve with time and patience. At the one-year mark, I was just about at my limit. We were doing well, and I was starting to finally go a little stir-crazy with not having had a bath in over a year and being forced to cook only with a crock pot and a stovetop, while playing tetris with a travel-refrigerator; it was time to start looking around for something that we could not only live with, but live comfortably. I found us a beautiful place that we are currently preparing to move into out in the country that has everything I have been missing for the last 14 months, plus huge amounts of space both inside and out.
What I think about now, when I think of our past situation, is twofold. First, I think about all of the people in the world who have LESS than I did, even when I was lacking items and services, and that they have to live creatively on a regular basis with no end in sight. Second, I think about how those of us who have always had all of the conveniences, feel that giving up just one thing for a few days is the end of our world. We have become so used to having the things that we have, that we forget about all of the people who have very little. Even in my situation, I found it difficult to make the transition from everything to not-necessarily-everything, even though we still had quite a bit. I think the problem is that it is so much easier to acquire things– items, residences, wide-open spaces–but it is so much harder to downsize, because we have evolved into a “hoarding” society; we feel we have to keep everything we have, because not only have we worked hard to get it, but we also figure we might need it at some point in the future. The problem with this is that life is so unpredictable. Disasters, both physical and financial, can happen to anyone at any time, and if we understand this concept and realize each situation is non-permanent, then the situation can be less profound and easier to adjust to when and if it happens. As for myself..what I have learned from my own situation is simple: Appreciate everything and regret nothing. Life happens..
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