Life Makover

I keep feeling the pull to become more self-sustaining. It’s a strong pull too. I don’t have these pulls all willy nilly. They usually show and prove to be accurate eventually. I’m not saying I’m psychic, but I am in tune with energy around me. Back to the blog…..

But I am an urbanite; and plan on staying one. Exactly how self-sustainable can I really get? I have been doing the Knowledge on a lot of different entities and I see a way that I can decrease my reliance on a lot of commercial items, thereby making myself more self sustainable.

The 1st thing I plan on doing is making all of my own toiletries. Soaps, deodorant, lotions, etc. With the exception of the soap, I already do this to a small degree. I stopped using aluminum deodorant years ago and guess what? I’m not funky. But I will go back and forth on it. I have eczema and my skin doesn’t respond well to commercial products. So this practice will have multiple benefits. This I’m implementing as I type.

The 2nd part of my plan involves my wardrobe. My God described my closet as a “department store.” And he’s right. I am glutinous in all that I own. And of course, half the stuff I don’t wear. I plane to decrease my wardrobe 33%/season change for 2 years. That should get me down to the bare bones and not have a ridiculous amount of stuff that I don’t need. Also, since I have been on a no-shopping challenge for a year, I have come to realize that I don’t need to shop. I am perfectly capable of creating any article of clothing that I need. And by making my own clothes, I can control the type of fabric. I want to purge all the synthetic fibers from the closet.

The 3rd part of the plan is to exist on a food budget of $100/month (or less) for me and anyone that comes along. Apparently, I hoard stuff, food included. My cabinets bulge and still I happily go off to the store every week to add more stuff. I have 2 refrigerators and I live alone. Does that make sense? So… I am starting to just eat what I have. There are complete feasts frozen in the spare frige. Don’t make no kind of sense…. And I started a small garden that will grow as the other entities in my life shrink. I grew tomatoes and cucumber this summer. The cucumber did well but the tomatoes were small. Next year I will add on and this fall I will grow some cold veggies.

I bought a new car this year. My old one died bad and publicly. But even though I have this flashy ‘Sunburst Orange’ jeep, I don’t drive it much. I live in GA and anyone that knows anything about knows that in GA you must have reliable transportation. I live on a bus route and partake, but the bus ain’t all that reliable and it doesn’t go everywhere you need it to go. I wanted a Prius, but I needed a car during the fall of the big American auto companies and could not bring myself to buy a foreign car. In my family we buy American and don’t make any bones about it. The bottom line is this and you don’t have to believe it… But we have to support our own… that applies to industry in this country that support workers here. I saw what the closing of a Ford plant did to the economy here last year. And I see what the loss of General Motors benefits has done to a lot of people (including retirees) in my community. We cannot be selfish. We have the responsibility to spend American dollars in America and support companies that hire American employees. Back to this paragraph’s original point…. I am being environmentally responsible by having bought a more gas efficient vehicle and then not driving it very much.

This is a whole life initiative. I want to be in Equality with my surroundings. I do not believe that I am owed anything by anybody. I do not want to prostitute the planet, or the economy. And I don’t feel like other folks should either.


Peace