It sounds like a good idea…right?
A friend from high school messaged me this week to make sure she was on the list for my blog as she hadn’t seen a new entry for a while. And there was my sign! Stop playing with the cover of my new book for a few hours and create another blog entry.
In 2011 the Tiny House movement is still in its infancy, mainly for granola eating I-want-to-make-an-environmental-statement type of person, or dead broke I-don’t-have-anywhere-else-to-live folks. The romantic notion of living in a tiny space had taken a hold of me two years earlier. For some reason I didn’t see it as a glorified studio apartment, on wheels no less, but more as a way to walk my talk. Perhaps after all I do fit into that first category and want to put my ideals and beliefs of living a simpler life to the test.
Meanwhile, I own a thriving massage school on the Big Island of Hawai’i. I teach and manage as many as 20 students at a time. Plus, I run the student clinic that provides the community with affordable massages. It’s fulfilling and sometimes exhausting work. It keeps me fully engaged in life and society. Maybe a little too engaged. When I’m not working, I need serious downtime away from everyone and everything. What better place than a tiny, easy to maintain house surrounded by nature?
The complex environmental movement feels overwhelming at times, with all its overarching tendrils reaching into every aspect of our society. I care deeply about what we are doing to our planet, so I do my best to keep myself informed. And once you know, you can’t not know anymore. With that in mind, I have to do something.
I have never been an activist. It’s not my dharma in this lifetime, although I have several friends who are. But perhaps this is my own form of quiet activism. A need to prove to myself and those around me that less is more and that it’s possible to have an amazing life with as few modern conveniences as possible. Did I mention this project includes living off the grid – aka, not hooked up to any easily available utilities (emphasis on the word ‘easy’)? Another romantic notion I’ve had for years. We’re talking seriously few modern conveniences, not even a flushing toilet – more on that later. Do I smell a learning here (no pun intended)? My enthusiastic, bring-it-on attitude has been known to get me in deep water over the years – this one might constitute a raging river. But I do love a challenge.
