Unstuffed: Dear Unstuffed,

Monday, April 15, 2013

Dear Unstuffed,

It's hard to believe that we've been together for over 5 years. I remember when we first got together in 2008, the year that I bought nothing new. That was such a big year of change for me. I freaked out about climate change and peak oil (still do sometimes) and overhauled my life to lower my environmental footprint any way I could. I was ready for the economic system to collapse at any moment (still am) and stayed up way too late reading the Oil Drum and the Archdruid report (in bed by 11 these days).

I became...um...a touch overzealous, strident even. I think I turned off a few friends. But not you. You stuck by me through it all. You were such a good support. I could turn to you anytime and pour my heart out. You would listen, not saying anything, not judging, just being there for me.

You were there when I discovered permaculture and a new-found desire for gardening. You encouraged my rapidly growing obsession with wild food and healing plants, and I loved how I could talk and talk and talk to you about things like weeds and hedges and compost.

It was because of you that I got involved with Transition Ottawa and without you I don't think I would have gotten my permaculture design certificate, started gardening on my allotment plots, taken an herbal apprenticeship, begun leading walks and workshops, and quit my job to start my own business.

I am grateful to you for so much, which is why this is so hard for me to say. Unstuffed, it's over. I'm sorry, but I just think that we've outgrown each other. I've changed so much and it's time for me to move on.

To be honest...well...I've started another blog. It's still really new and there's a lot of work to be done yet. I'm still getting to know it and how to use it, but I think we'll be really good for each other.

Unstuffed, it's not you. It's me. I hope we can still be friends. So if you want to hang out sometime, you can find me here. You're the best.

Love,
Amber

5 comments:

wendyytb said...: It was here that I learned conscience...and gained so much knowledge. I was encouraged by your example. My life was changed forever, and for the better...

Thank you.; April 15, 2013 at 5:01 PM
Amber said...: Thanks Wendy. It's through the blog that I was able to connect with such wonderful people like you! I'm so grateful for that.; April 16, 2013 at 8:54 AM
daltxguy said...: Congratulations on your progress and the new blog/business.
I share your concerns about the economy, peak everything and the financial system. Like you I fear that it may come undone anytime but perhaps like you, realize that it IS already happening but that so far, for now, it's happening slowly enough that there is time to react, learn, adjust and set off in a new direction.
I follow your progress with interest as it reflects my own!; April 16, 2013 at 9:03 PM
Amber said...: Thanks daltxguy! I have come to see my awareness of the issues as a gift that created space for me to really reflect on how I want to live my life. I feel like my path is much more authentic and aligned with my values than ever before and I have a real sense of purpose and meaning. Amidst the fear, worry and sense of loss, it is what keeps me grounded, hopeful and moving towards joy. :); April 17, 2013 at 10:09 AM
Chile said...: Congratulations on moving forward into a new business and blog, Amber.

Isn't it amazing how much we've all changed since those first early days of blogging? Lately I've been coming to grips with the overzealousness with which I approached food preservation back then. Holy cow, nobody needs THAT many jars! LOL; April 19, 2013 at 11:01 AM

Raison d'etre

In 2008 I didn't buy anything new for the whole year. Food and basic toiletries (but not toilet paper) were the obvious exceptions (twice I broke my own rule). Used items were allowed, but I tried really hard to reduce consumption as much as possible.

I finished my year successfully, and along the way learned a lot about how much the world consumes, the waste we produce, sustainability, voluntary simplicity, climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, the water crisis, the food crisis, voting with your dollar, voting with your fork....

Now, I've transformed into a slightly nutty, very passionate, gardening, preserving, DIYing, simple living, nature loving, weed eating, backyard medicine making, urban homesteader, and I still don't use toilet paper!

With the help of the Awesomedudeguy (ADG), I'm continuing my exploration of living lightly and frugally, while increasing my self-sufficiency and resiliency, staying debt free, and preparing for a climate changed, resource depleted world, in uncertain economic times.

My nothing new restriction is lifted, but I continue to be a gentle, local consumer as much as possible.

My hope is that some of the information and resources I post about here will be helpful to others. Thanks so much for stopping by !

Yours in unstuffing,
Amber

"Forgive me if I never visit. I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with dandelion, make a sorry figure for the drawing room" ~Emily Dickinson

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that.... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature." ~Abraham Cowley

"The laws of nature are under no obligation to cater to our culture’s emotionally charged fantasies of perpetual progress and limitless growth." ~John Michael Greer

"Sometimes we think we are too small to make a difference in this big world. Our actions seem insignificant in comparison to global issues such as climate change and population growth. However, the reality is that action on an individual level is exactly how big changes are made. Without individual and family sustainability, there’s no community sustainability. And without community sustainability, there’s no global sustainability. In fact, earth-wide change is absolutely impossible without individual change.
It really does come down to you and me."
~From Living Sustainably: It's Your Choice

"The universal conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity or a sham, never in the interest of a thing fine or respectable. Is it the most timid and shabby of all lies? It seems to have the look of it. For ages and ages it has mutely laboured in the interest of despotisms and aristocracies and chattel slaveries, and military slaveries, and religious slaveries, and has kept them alive; keeps them alive yet, here and there and yonder, all about the globe; and will go on keeping them alive until the silent-assertion lie retires from business--the silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop." ~Mark Twain

"It is not enough simply to abstain from theft...We must remember that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At best, we are merely borrowers. It is our duty, therefore, to borrow no more from the world than we absolutely need, and to make full and proper use of it. Taking more than we need, and wasting it, is a form of stealing from the rest of humankind."
~Commentary on Sutra 30 The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali