Do you ever long for a simpler life?
By sharra1
@sharra1 (6340)
Australia
March 16, 2009 12:08am CST
I love reading books set in the past and seeing a world that appears to have been much less complicated. It had its own problems but it makes me think that we have made this world too busy, too stressful and too demanding. We have not changed that much as human beings but the demands on us as people has increased immensely. I think it is sad and sometimes I long for the simplicity of the past.
How about you do you love the complexity and stress of modern times? Or would you rather live a more peaceful life?
18 people like this
61 responses
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
16 Mar 09
How simpler do you want? Most people like to imagine themselves living in countryside surrounded by nature and a few neighbours scattered around.
But accordingly to a China local newspaper, when rural folks got angry, the crime they committed are so horrible. Like a man killing the whole family when the gal rejected his love.
I can't imagine living in the past, without modern facilities. Simply can't imagine a house without clean toilets, bathroom, no kitchen facility, and you got to spending hours chopping wood just to start a fire to cook dinner.
I like facilities of modern time, but I can do without a lot of upgrading of softwares or things like that.
2 people like this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
16 Mar 09
Hmmm sounds like camping to me and lots of people do that for fun. I did not say giving up modern facilities but we can have them without working 20 hours a day. My job used to make me work 12 hours a day and sometimes more for weeks at a time. That was the compulsory overtime and then there was the voluntary overtime that you do if you want to keep your job. Yes we got paid for it but I would have given the money back to have my time to myself.
I would have loved to work part time but they refused to consider it. There are more people than jobs and I would have loved to share my job with someone. It would mean less money but still enough to live on. I valued my private time more than the money. In the end I left but within a few months I was sick and am now disabled through that illness. I live in the country and I love it. Nice quiet town, very little crime.
I have no idea what china is like as I have never been there but I believe that if we changed our focus on values rather than money then we could develop a world where people could live with less pressure and less income and still have a good life. It is the desire for money in a world that regards wealth as the only thing that matters that causes so much crime.
1 person likes this
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
17 Mar 09
Hi Sharra, sorry to hear about your health condition. Over here in Singapore, most of us also worked very long hours. I had friends working as office staff who even worked overnight. The longest day I ever stayed in office was from 7 am to 11 pm.
It's very tiring to work like this, alternating 11 hours and 14 hours a day, six days a week. And the worst is the inability to sleep at night. It's very funny, after spending so many hours and mentally exhausted, yet cannot sleep at night.
Right now in recession, many Singaporeans who are retrenched go to gym every day. When it's time to work, we all work hard. When time for play, play hard.
Even then, we have one of the highest cancer and heart disease rate in the world.
Anyway, you are out of the rat race now, try to enjoy life as best you can.
@James72 (26790)
• Australia
16 Mar 09
It's funny that you bring up this subject sharra as I was only talking about simplicities of life in the car on the way home last night! I was talking about the mentality of people in island cultures such as Fiji and Vanuatu etc. Time is of no consequence in places like these at all. They eat when they're hungry, sleep when they're tired and work when there's nothing to eat! It all sounds like absolute bliss if you ask me! 
2 people like this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
16 Mar 09
That is how I feel about it as well. I firmly believe I am sick because I worked too hard. I could be wrong as no one really knows what causes my illness after all but I think it awfully suspicious that the year before I was wanting to run away from my job. I had just had enough of the overtime and the fights to get holidays when I wanted to take them. I was so angry and frustrated that I decided that year to leave. I stayed just until my long service was due and that gave us 3 months to make our changes.
I wanted 6 at half pay but they refused but you should have seen the shock on their faces when I resigned a month before I was due back. My work mates all knew but the bosses refused to believe I would quit. 4 months later I had my first symptoms and from there on it just got worse until I was unable to work at all.
I do wonder if I had left earlier and cut back maybe it might never have happened but we cannot change the past. I think that maybe I pushed my system too hard for too long. Who knows but I do much prefer living peacefully in the country doing what I can and not having any pressure put on me.
I think the island cultures are very fortunate in that way but they are changing a bit as people try to make them like us. Still if global warming keeps up they may well be under water one day. Then the writer of Red Dwarf will be right.
2 people like this
@honeyfyona (134)
• Philippines
16 Mar 09
Im easily get stress kind of person and i always long for peaceful life. even in planning my future as much as possible simple life and things i ever wanted. but i think things are not happening that way because my husband thinks opposite the way i do...
2 people like this
@modstar (9605)
• Philippines
16 Mar 09
That is very true! I do long for a simpler life. I am here in a bigger city where my dad told to get a job but i insist that i want to go back home in my hometown to work. I hate it here. Everything is expensive! At home, i can buy food with less money. The establishments are closer with eachother. It is really peaceful back home. I got everything i need and that's all that matters to me.
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
16 Mar 09
I think that values are far more important than money. I think money is useful but loving money has caused so much pain and suffering. I was born in a city and spent most of my life there but I always wanted to live in the country.
I moved to the country 3 years ago and I have never been happier. We do not have a lot of money because we are both unable to work due to disabling illnesses but we are happy. Curiously in Australia it is dearer in the country than the city as they increase prices to cover the cost of transporting goods here. Still it is much more peaceful.
1 person likes this
@GADHISUNU (2162)
• India
16 Mar 09
Life as it unfolds today is pretty complex indeed. I have also liked reading stories set in times whose values I seemed to have liked more. When I was in my school there was one social studies teacher, who used to revel in calling me the 18th Century man!
I was too young and of course too uncomplicated as a person to be even getting what she was meaning by saying that;once when I pressed she did explain, but I wasn't at all impressed; but that was pretty irritating to hear that day in and day out. There was only one such teacher who made such a comment in the whole of my career. As is my wont unless a comment is corroborated by many and more so by a person who really does not know me, I wouldn't give a damn.
I always wonder however, which times were better. Times when Cholera could become an epidemic and wipe out populations, or say one bubonic plague decimating populations whereas the same are so tame in our own times! How wonderful to think of? Talk of values, there is a total erosion of them.Today every person is interested in getting at any cost.Even if it means letting down the closest friend, for the sake of one's own progress in career!
Medicines have multiplied but so have newer diseases. One might contend saying diseases haven't multiplied, they are only coming out into the open because of better diagnostic facilities.Not having the wherewithal to deal with a plethora of diseases people used to simply succumb to them and if at all there was some nature born immunity that stood in good stead.
But the demands that kids make on parents shock us. Again and again we are tempted to think that we haven't made such demands from our parents!This is reality that keeps biting. In such conditions we can only have some solace in reading those books-classics, or novels of that time, or may be shun all this buzz and retire to a life shorn of all complications when we ought to retire.
2 people like this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
31 Mar 09
We have seen just recently in Africa that cholera is never far away, even in these modern times when we can cure it. Curiously enough though I was referring to living life simply and that can be achieved in this day and age without giving up mod cons or technology.
It is about how we think about life and how much time we spend on work or family. All one needs to do is work less and live on less money but spend more time on the important things like family. I moved to the country to enjoy a more relaxed life. I do not see why she have to wait until we are old and retired before we can have less stress in our lives.
@cjforeverknight (427)
• United States
16 Mar 09
I understand what you mean about the simplicity of life. It would be nice to be able to grow your own fruits & veggies. Not rely on autos so much. Good health for all our loved ones. All anyone has ever wanted in all our lives is to be able to have a nice home nothing fancy just clean & well furnished, again nothing fancy just some nice things. Be able to pay our bills when due. Have health insurance & life insurance. Buy the necessities of life to be able to live a normal life without worries about tomorrow. My grandma always told me to trust in God & don't worry about tomorrow. But sometimes as humans we tend to get caught up in our lives & I myself get so depressed. And I think about the past & probably people was really better off in the past than we are today. But hey I love my little gadgets at home & the internet too, LMAO!!! So some things we do have better now. But just a few.
2 people like this
@riyasam (16556)
• India
16 Mar 09
yup,i too like to read such books and do try to visualise myself in such setting.there were no modern amenities at that time but life was more peaceful at that time.once in a year,we go to our villages where though we have tap water ,we use the nearby wells and go to nearby creek to take bath.
@zed_k4 (17589)
• Singapore
8 Jul 09
This is a very good topic that I'm not surprised that it has reached to quite a lot of responses. Awesome..
As for me, to answer this discussion, I would definitely choose a simpler life. I used to like to live large and all that but as I grow older, the appeal of a simple life simply is the right fit for me. I long for a simple life, and coming to think of it, I already am leading it now.
But perhaps one day, I could stay in a piece of land I call my own. If I can, that is. Otherwise, I would be contented to live simply with my future love one and my existing love ones, which is my family. Very good discussion here..
1 person likes this
@zed_k4 (17589)
• Singapore
10 Jul 09
I am so glad that you are able to fulfill your dream place to live now. That's very cool, to be able to live in a country setting, enjoying the scenery and at the same time, being able to take one thing at a time. I hate the business of city life too at times and would love a peaceful ambiance once in awhile. Those whom have holiday homes in a country area are really lucky...
1 person likes this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
9 Jul 09
I am glad you like it. Everyone is different. I grew up in a city but I always longed to live in the country. I did not manage it until now because my work and family were all in the city. My brothers are still very much city people. They both live in the inner city and they like the vibrancy of life there.
My partner and I prefer the peace of the country and love to be surrounded by nature rather than people. We moved here 3 years ago and we love it very much. I probably would have been happy to grow up on a farm but I am too old for that sort of life now. It is lovely here and very peaceful.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
19 Mar 09
I wouldn't want to live in a world without modern medicine or some modern conveniences, that's for sure. But I would like life to be at least a little bit simpler, yes.
@umart13 (841)
• Ireland
10 Apr 09
Hello sharra1, yes indeed, I do often wish for a much simpler life. That is why I chose to live outside the city and near to forests and rivers. If I could I would move even further away and go and live in the Carpathian mountains in Europe, where there are still bears and wolves. I would love to have my own farm, although I know that life is hard. I would also like to live somewhere where there is so much land that the people are not aggressive and do not feel the need to compete for resources as they do in the cities. However, I will admit that I do like having internet access. So I may like to live in the beautiful but remote countryside, but I would still keep the communication lines open to the world community... Have a Happy Easter. Umart
1 person likes this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
16 Apr 09
I think it is tragic the way we keep losing countryside. I am glad that Germany still has farms. Too often the land is subdivided and sold for housing and then the farm is lost forever. The more farming land we lose to housing the more expensive our food gets.
The sensible thing would be to keep the best farming land for farms and have houses on the poorer land but people want to live in the nice land areas. In Australia we still have farms but it is hard for them to survive. This really is a country of drought and flooding rains and many areas have just come out of a drought to be flooded. That makes it a hard life. Bushfire is the other nasty threat we face but it would not be so bad if people did not light them on purpose.
We have bought a house on a half acre and are trying to grow our own food as much as we can but the soil is depleted and we are both old and sick and do not have a lot of money so it is taking time. But I do keep my own chickens and we are slowly improving the soil so we hope to have an orchard that produces fruit soon and we are still working on the vegetables. I used to think they would be easy to grow but it seems there is a lot more to it than just put the seed in the ground and you get food. lol. A typical city girls knowledge. Actually we grew vegetables in my back yard in the city easier than we are doing it here. The soil here is quite different.
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
11 Apr 09
It sounds like you have found a nice place to live. If I was younger and fitter I would love to live on a farm but I know it is hard work. You really need a family who are willing to put their heart into it. My uncle had a dairy farm and he found it impossible to make a living because the dairy kept changing the fat requirement of the milk.
The trouble is that for a farmer to change his milk fat content he has to change the cows in his herd. It is all about the proportion of Jersey cows who have high fat milk to Friesians who have lower fat etc. If he did not keep the ratio of cows that the dairy required they would not buy his milk and he was out of business but it is very expensive to have to keep changing your herd. I thought it was very unfair of them since there is still full cream milk on the market. If his mortgage had not been so high then maybe he could have managed. In the end he subdivided his farm to get out of debt and so another farm was lost forever. I think that is such a shame especially since he loved farming and it broke his heart to lose it.
I do love living in the country though and I will not go back to the city if I can avoid it. I have a small area for free range chickens, a few fruit trees and I try to grow my own vegetables and I am very happy.
@umart13 (841)
• Ireland
11 Apr 09
Morning sharra, thanks for your reply. Wonderful! I also learnt something about dairy farming from you, as you were talking about mixing the breeds cow to get the right fat content for the milk. I live in Germany, which has a much nicer countryside than many people know. I think it's the langauge which puts the tourists off coming here. Originally I am from Ireland, so I miss the simpler way off life, particularly when I think of how my grandparents used to earn their living. My grandfather was a market gardener. He grew broccoli, flowers and shamrock for export, among other things, whereas my grandmother was a fruit and vegetable trader in the Smithfield Market in Dublin. Their ways are sadly past and Dublin has lost much of its heritage as property developers have destroyed the city and the land around it. Greetings from up here to down there. Umart
1 person likes this
@savypat (20216)
• United States
17 Mar 09
This is just one of the great perks you get by going on retreat. If you look for it you can find one that is a week-end and is not very expensive. you will come back refreshed and refueled ready to face our overly stimulated world.
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
26 Mar 09
I went on two weekend retreats when I was younger and they helped me turn my life around. They did not cost much and were all about learning to love and respect yourself.
They were the best thing I every did for myself and I have never looked back. I was able to turn my negative thoughts around and learn to look positively at life.
@maygodblessu44 (7336)
• India
20 Mar 09
Hello my friend sharra1 Ji,
Well, first of all, I appriciate your topic selection from bottom of my heart.
Now-a-days, no one has time to spare. Everyone is very busy doing nothing. They make
themselves always busy. I am just not able to think, why they do not think like you.
let's find out to live simple way, with minimum bare requirement in life. So, nor me
nor my hubby keep cell-phones. We avoid, as cell phones make life very busy. They do not
allow us to have our personnel quality time.May God bless You and have a great time.
1 person likes this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
21 Mar 09
We have one cell phone we keep for emergencies when driving as we live in the country and we need to be able to call for help, if there is coverage of course. But apart from that we do not bother.
We moved to the country to get away from the stress of city life and we much prefer living as simply as possible.
1 person likes this
@maygodblessu44 (7336)
• India
26 Mar 09
Hello my friend sharra1 Ji,
So nice of your supporting comments. Simple living in country side is like living very
near to nature. Your vital energies would be presrved and utilised bare minimum. You
will have lot of fresh air, which normally we starve in big cities, because of big
crowds. May God bless You and have a great day.
1 person likes this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
6 Jul 09
It is the nature of the human mind to be creative and so we tend to create tools to make tasks easier. These days this has gone beyond most people with greed for money. Some humans have always been greedy but our society has made greed a required nature in order to survive and that is what is wrong with our society.
Instead of being content with enough some people want it all even though they cannot possibly use it. In order to get it all they have to destroy others and this competitive system has destroyed the whole idea of community and valuing others. It has poisoned society at its core. It is possible to change but not while the power/money hungry greedy people rule and shape the nature of our society.
@France7 (385)
• Philippines
7 Jul 09
I agree that it is in the disposition of mankind being creative and inventive, for I believe that our Creator is such a very creative God; nevertheless, it was in the greedy nature of humans that wrecked our society just like what you have said. Man misused the power that was entrusted to him and instead exploited it through things that would satisfy his wants mostly(instead of his needs)....
1 person likes this
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
23 Jul 09
All of the time! How wonderful would life be if we never had to leave home to go to work or if we never ran out of money or even needed money!
1 person likes this
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
31 Jul 09
I hear that! I only have to travel about 10 minutes to get to work now.
@limeng371 (32)
• China
16 Mar 09
Yes,this problem made me confused for quite a long time.Sometimes I really miss my childhood.And when I was kid,there was less stress,comppetition and worries.Although today's incredible high-tech provides us advancing enjoyments.But at the same time it also brings with something negative.As with our greedy grows,there was decrease of love and care between us.We got angry easily just by maybe some small reasons.And we hardly believe or undstand the others.Today almost erveryone lives in the world of self-center.So imagine the kind of live in ancient.People don't have to work in the office building for 8 or more hours a day and 5 days a week.People enjoy rest of the days with nature.
So I wish to live a quiet and peaceful life
@Nancy1987 (54)
• China
16 Mar 09
Yeah,I am quite agree with.The modern world really provide us a lot various from entertainment to living condition but we also suffer a lot from the polluted air water and much noise.
1 person likes this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
28 Mar 09
Yes I quite agree. I started to resent the amount of time my employer kept requesting or suggesting I should work. When I was single it meant I did not have a social life as I was too tired.
When I started to have a social life and I found friends I wanted to spend time with rather than continue to work long hours I found my employer resented it. She could not stop me not working the hours as it was voluntary but she tried to make me feel like I was letting everyone down by going home on time instead of working extra hours. Trouble was my life became far more important to me than money and I was getting very tired or doing nothing but work, eat and sleep.
I think that too many employers now demand too much of their workers and resent them having a life outside of work. It is no surprise that so many marriages die when families do not have time for each other or are too tired to enjoy the time they do have. It does not have to be this way. We could have more job sharing and more people would then be employed.
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
17 Mar 09
i now live a very simple quiet life. i had to quit work nearly 5 years ago due to health problems so that really slowed me down. i enjoy it now, took some getting use to but i do miss some of the things i use to do. i think most everyone needs to slow down & enjoy life more but i know when u are working, have a family to look after or other obligations it's hard to. everyone needs to make time for a slower pace.
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
6 Jul 09
I quit work nearly 4 years ago because the stress levels were killing me, or at least I felt they were and we moved to the country to have a more peaceful life. 6 months later I became ill and am now on a disability pension so I have had to make a huge adjustment in my life expectations as there is so much I can no longer do.
I regret that we are a long way from friends and family but at the same time I love the country and have no wish to go back to the city. Despite everything I am happy and we live quite well despite our low income.
1 person likes this
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
6 Jul 09
I'm glad u are happy where u are, i am to. i had to quit work 4 years ago because of medical problems. Of course it is a worry as to whether i could survive or not. i was drawing s/s for about 6 months before i got where i couldn't work. Thank heavens i had some money saved because i sure can't make ends meet w/s/s. I live a very quiet to. I LIVE IN TOWN [SMALL TOWN]bit my neighborhood is very quiet & i have good neighbors are very nice. Happy days to u.
@jordan04n (463)
• United States
30 Mar 09
I have in fact pared down my like to be simple and livable as long as I must . Our scheduled are still scheduled yet have become lose and barable. I say no if it doesn't work for us. We have slowed down and enjoy life more. We take lots of walks, play, communicate and touch our more creative self everyday.
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
30 Mar 09
That sounds good. I wish I had done that a lot earlier in my life instead of let the stress build to a point that it became too hard to cope with. That was when I left my job.
It sounds like you have worked out a nice balance in your life. That is very good.
@csrobins (1120)
• United States
17 Mar 09
Sometimes, but I enjoy living fast paced for the most part. It keedp things less boring . However, I think it makes us take a lot for granted and forget to enjoy what we have. The past had issues too like no modern day convienences to help make life easier. That's just my prefeerence though. It definitely isn't good for us to be living like this.
1 person likes this
@ethelsat1974 (82)
• Philippines
20 Mar 09
Yes that's my dream to live in a simple way and a place which needs simplicity in life.No hassles and noise.
1 person likes this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
26 Mar 09
Well I hope that one day you can achieve your dream. It took me most of my life to achieve mine of living a simple life in the country. I am not at all sure that there are no hassles and no noise though.
Hmmm we live on a major highway and have big trucks rolling through. They are noisy but not that many of them and there are normal life hassles like leaking roofs to fix.
@vandana7 (100303)
• India
28 Aug 09
Well, there are plus points as well as minus points. We do forget that such nostalgic memories do not include the times when we have been unhappy in that era as well. I too feel the old songs are good, old movies are good, and so are the books. But I can appreciate songs from more contemporary times as well. Not all, but quite a few. So we do have to move with times. :( Long for the past - I was not as comfortable as I am now. We didnt have a home - always lived in rented accommodation, and that fear of monthly rent would be looming large on my mind. Now, we do have a tiny but cute apartment. So that fear is no longer there. :-) That gives a lot of peace to my mind. I wish we coluld have plus points of that era with plus points of this era. :-)
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
29 Aug 09
I am talking about the present, not the past. For me a simpler life was to move out of the city into a small country town where life moves at a much slower pace. It has nothing to do with comfort as I had more money in the city but I longed for a more relaxing life.
My job took too much from me and still wanted more. I was tired of the constant demands to devote my life to my job and not to myself or my partner. We moved to the country for a quieter life.
