I have been contemplating the term 'busy' recently. Our society has a bit for believing it is 'too busy' to get back to the basics. But what is busy? I would hope it was being engaged in meaningful things. Wht you term as meaningful will change from person to person. However, when one becomes too busy to maintain a health-ful life then theyare not filling their time with personally enriching activities, meaning they are sacrificing perhaps a bit too much.
In my pursuit of a sustainable house in the most frugal manner possible I have realized one thing - if you can't figure out a sustainable way to live now, think of how the pioneers did it. If the pioneers did not occupy their time doing it, then it is probably not meaningful. Perhaps many things that the pioneers did were more purposeful than full of personal meaning, but they were wholesome.
How do the two thoughts of busy and pioneers connect? In the modern society one is too busy to air dry their clothing. Too busy doing what? Are we doing something meaningful or purposeful. Our modern life is too busy? How so? In comparison to the life on the plains, managing (if not creating/building from scratch) a home and a livelihood being ultimately busy. Can you imagine making all your food from scratch, like the scratch in the dirt scratch? That keeps one fairly occupied just to put food in your belly. Women in a pioneer home were not distracted with conviences of grocery stores and laundry machines to keep them for creating a sustainable world. And don't think they were without hobbies or social activities. The main difference, most social activities and hobbies were also sustainable tasks! Barn raisings. Harvest festivals. Quilting guilds. Ladies aide societies.
What are you busy doing?
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