Life Changes Influence Writing

The last post concentrated on those authors who have influenced my writing. Now, I must give credit to someone who has had a marked influence on my life.

For many years, especially when we lived in Germany, my wife and I sought a simpler life -- a life not driven by material things, a life more centered on family, the environment, and doing more with less. Not having access to the Internet at the time and seeing American papers and other media only occasionally, we did not know there was a movement toward those same things in which we were interested.

Generically known as "simple living", this movement helps people understand how to simplify their lives without sacrificing those things that are important to them. It is as easy to simplify one's life in a big city as it is in the country, although the methods may differ drastically. Although we did not know the term when we returned to the United States, we still felt a yearning to do more with less, reduce our footprint on the earth, and find more time for family, especially our daughter.

One morning while eating breakfast, we turned on the television which was already set to a public station. The show pictured a woman sitting on a hillside. She was looking out toward gently rolling mountains that definitely looked the Appalachians to us. She was doing a voice-over describing how she had turned to a simpler lifestyle and had dramatically improved her quality of life. This was our introduction to Wanda Urbanska of Mount Airy, North Carolina, an accomplished author and acknowledged expert on simple living.

Through four seasons of her show Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska, telephone calls, and emails, Wanda showed us we were not alone in looking for a different life style. We discovered there are many people making small or large changes in their lives as they find their own personal path to simplicity. See Wanda's website at http://www.simplelivingtv.net/.

For us as we currently live in the Washington DC suburbs, it has meant being less of a consumer, being more environmentally conscious, and being more aware of the demands on our time. We reduced the time we spent running here and there and discovered more time for classical music concerts, art galleries, family, and friends. We have no space to grow a vegetable garden, but we now know where the farm markets are. We discovered that one television and one computer were enough, although we have not broken the need for cell phones. We still have two cars because we go in different directions each day and there is no public transportation. However, one car is a hybrid, so that helps a little.

In our current situation, we cannot grow our own food, heat our house with wood from downed trees, or even save the water coming from the gutters to use on the gardens. However, that is okay. Wanda taught us that simple living is mostly an exercise in trying different things and doing as much as you can.

Thank you, Wanda, for showing us the light. We will be eternally grateful.

In Peace, Frank

Quaker Hill Press
Fine Literature for Gentle Readers
www.quakerhillpress.com