“My grandmother came from a farm background. She was born in the 1880’s when horse and buggy was the only method of transportation. Shopping was a major undertaking that took the whole day. She was forced to plan ahead because she just didn’t have the time to pick up a few things for supper.”   This is a quote from Dennis’ comment to A Letter To My Grandma.  It ties in well with my last post What Would Grandma Use To Get Around?

We live in an extraordinarily mobile society.  Although I currently stay home full-time with my kids, I rarely ever stay home.  I feel like I am in a perpetual state of motion.  My ability to be mobile impacts what I try to accomplish in a given day.  I live in a mindset of always trying to get the next thing done.  Rushing around from one thing to another creates an underlying feeling of discontentment in my life.  I never allow myself to settle emotionally or physically.  I consume my moments just like I consume my stuff.  Nothing satisfies when I live this way. 

What Would Grandma Try To Get Done?  I envy Grandma because she seemed to know the limits of her life.  She knew what each day required of her.  Her life had boundaries and structure.  Grandma’s week had a rhythm.  Dennis’ comment went on to describe his Grandma’s weekly rhythm as follows:

Monday: wash
Tuesday: iron
Wednesday: gardening
Thursday: sewing
Friday: baking
Saturday: shopping
Sunday: church

What would it feel like to have a daily, weekly, monthly rhythm?  What if I just focused on doing the basics instead of running around like a chicken with my head cut off?  Grandma knew exactly what that looked like and it wasn’t pretty!  What would I be giving up?  What would I gain? 

Learning to live like my Grandma is not just about sustainably and simplicity.  It is about having a rhythm to my days - not a longer to do list.  My frantic pace makes me feel disconnected from the details of my own life.  I am no good for myself and no good for others when I live this way.  I want to know what I am doing and why I am doing it. 

What Would Grandma Try To Get Done?  Did your Grandma have a rhythm?  Did it make her life more simple or more complicated?  I can get the basics done a lot more quickly than Grandma.  I should have time left over, but I cram a lot of unecessary activities into my day.  What if I had a rhythm that just covered the basics?  I wonder if it would open up space for the things I truly enjoy.   

As part of my two week break from blogging, I spent three days at a monastery called, St. Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan.  There is almost no quieter place on earth than spending time in the company of monks.

It was just what I needed.

From the moment I arrived until the minute I left, I found myself pondering one thing - the fact that my life has grown too noisy (again).  I knew very little about the blogging world prior to starting my own and while this has been a deeply satisfying journey, it does not fit well into the other parts of my life.

And so it is with a true sense of sadness that I have decided to close down My Grandma Was Green. 

I have struggled with this decision because on the surface it seems my reason is as simple as my life has grown too busy and full.  And in the American culture where a full schedule is praised, personal busyness hardly seems a reason to step away from something.  However, I have discovered that busyness can be and often has been a source of disconnectedness and pain in my life.  Consequently, busyness hardly lends itself to creating a more sustainable and simple lifestyle.

I never took time to define the word sustainability while writing my blog but I think I have started to form a working definition for my own life.  I believe living sustainably means taking only that which I need to live a meaningful, generous and connected life. 

In order to do this I need to be diligent in learning how to distinguish between wants and needs - no small feat in a culture that is saturated with advertising aimed at turning every single thing into a need!  I realize my definition is somewhat ambiguous because the words meaningful, generous and connected can be defined in a variety of ways.  However, when I view sustainability in this context, it puts me on a path of wanting to take less and give more.  It breaks down the walls of my everyday, ordinary life and forces me to consider the well-being of others in each decision I make.

I seem to have a passion for “s” words such as simplicity and slowness.  I am now committed to moving forward in my journey with another “s” word to pursue - sustainability.  Each of these words is connected in so many ways but the tie that binds them together for me is relationships.  I believe I can pursue deeper and more meaningful relationships with self, God, my family, friends, neighbors, community and the world if I commit myself to simplicity, slowness and also sustainability. 

Therefore, I am going to persist with the changes I have made and I will continue to make more changes in the future.  Only now I will have to record my journey in the old-fashioned way - in the pages of my journal, through conversations with friends and family and in the quiet moments of my days.

I am not sure which part of this short journey has been the most important - recommitting myself to a slower pace, my growing awareness of important changes I need to make toward a more sustainable lifestyle, or reconnecting with my grandparents and my own history.  I guess each one is important in its own way.

If you are interested in learning from and connecting to your grandparents or any older person who is significant to you and/or learning about sustainability by looking to the past, I would encourage you to make use of the extensive questionnaire developed by Virginia Allee called, A Family History Questionnaire.  It proved to be an invaluable resource in asking my grandparents to share their story.  I trust you will find the same.

Thank you for all of your support in this endeavor.  I have learned a lot and will continue to be inspired by the stories I have read and by those individuals who are making great changes through the blogging world.

Goodbye for now,
April

Today is an anniversary of sorts for My Grandma Was Green.  I have been writing this blog for exactly three months and have managed to see my way through twelve Grandma Challenges. 

It is time for me to pause.

The chair in the picture is my favorite reading chair.  It is tucked into a corner in my living room next to a table with a lamp.  I love to sit in this chair at night when the house is quiet and my kids are in bed.  It is a precious moment of the day when I can read, reflect and rest.

I have not been able to sit in my favorite chair nearly as much since starting My Grandma Was Green.  I am okay with that since I knew this would be a season of action.  However, I do feel the need to take a little break in order to rest, regroup and reflect on what I have learned so far.

Stay tuned for for my next post on Tuesday, October 7.  I will share some of my reflections and return with a new set of Grandma Challenges as well as some updates on the ones I have already implemented. 

In the meantime, please continue to collect your best “grandma” stories and dig around in the archives if you are new to my site.  Although I am taking a little break, feel free to leave a comment or drop me a note at april@mygrandmwasgreen.com  I will still check my site and take time to respond to your comments and stories!