Towards the end of last year I visited some lovely friends in Devon and they took me out on a magical mystery tour around the beautiful North Devon coastline on the Sunday. They mentioned that they didn't usually use the car or computer on Sundays; which got me thinking... wouldn't it be great if I could rely less on my own car, mains electricity, gas, mobile, laptop etc?!
I've already reduced my home energy use considerably over the last few years and I try really hard to live as ethical and low impact life as I can, but I know there's a lot of room for improvement. I wish I was brave enough to close my eyes and jump straight into the unknown and go completely off-grid, but I'm not. I like to dip my toes in the water first and do things gradually, then, by taking things step by step I'm far more likely to make some lasting changes. So I decided to start my move towards a less crazy life by 'Reclaiming Sundays'.
Reclaiming Sundays means (for me) going back to a time when Sunday was a day of rest; a day to slow down and reconnected with nature. With this in mind, I thought it might be good to combine lots of other things that were bothering me about my life and see if I could work them all into the one day......
- Spend less time on the computer
- Spend more time doing things I love like reading, walking and sitting on the hill.
- Reduce my dependence on the grid system
- Reduce my use of energy and other precious resources
- Learn how to use my wood burning stove to cook meals
- Stop spending money
- Allow myself time by myself
That was 8 weeks ago - and I can't believe what a difference it's made in so many ways. Will write about that next time......
