Through my eyes

YOU'RE NOT A TREE, YOU CAN MOVE

This is one of my favourite quotes from Jim Rohn, because it's so simple and TRUE! If you don't like the way something is, just change it! Common human thinking can make us act as if we were trees, unable to "move". How many times have you complained to your friend about your weight or the job you're in, or the like, but still continued with that job for years or continued the same lifestyle with little to no exercise and catastrophic eating habits

Many aspects influenced my husband and I to make a major move in our life. We have recently uprooted our life, rented out our 3-bedroom house, and moved into a tiny tree house at the bottom of our garden. It's like living on a yacht and we kind of like it like that.

The big family home we built many years ago was designed for our extended family with 2 sons and their friends, and the family pets. However as time went by, the children left home, the extended family brought their own places close by and the family pets were scaled down to two medium sized pooches.

In the years since my sons moved out we have had an interesting time holding on to the idea that they would come back and move back into their bedrooms and we would pick up where we left off, hence their cupboards were kept stocked with clothes, fresh towels in their en-suite bathrooms were changed at least once a week and the linen was always fresh just in case they would drop by.

Needless to say life became tedious, living in hope and finding it hard to admit that our lives have moved along and that our children, in most likelihood, will not be returning to claim their childhood bedrooms.

In the recent years our travels have taken us to some god-forsaken places and we saw how people live and how happy people some were, living in small spaces with very little or with limited resources. In most cases, their lives were richer than ours, they were not chasing phantom dreams of the good old days, and they were living with hope of a better and a more prosperous tomorrow. Always looking ahead to a brighter future.

When we lived off the grid in a tiny beachside cottage in Sri Lanka, we first learned the power of a minimalist lifestyle. We had very few possessions, and with time we have realised that the less you have, the less you need and that you really need very little stuff to be happy.

It was then that we made a pact - a 'pinky promise', that we would change our life, stop working so hard for stuff and start working hard to live.

What was designed as a gazebo at the bottom of our garden, became a 50-meter square tree house. Complete with an open plan living, dining and kitchen and a small bathroom. The bedroom/office space was delegated upstairs with a sweet balcony nestled in the branches.

It took a year to convert everything into a solid plan. Packing our home was very painful as I boxed up the family albums and remodelled my sons' bedrooms. Saying goodbye to my old life was one of the most painful things I had to do in a long time and I'm still tearing up when I consider how much I had to give up to find myself here, in my tree.

Its early days but everything seems to fit and I've stopped searching for thingsI just accepted that I will have to live without many luxuries and that by letting go of all the things, I have allowed new things to come into my life.

Here is to new, clutter free life!