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
