It’s a fair question, taking into consideration how easy life has become compared to how it used to be – as off-grid living traditionally focuses on past ways of living.
Things such as washing your laundry by hand have been replaced with modern day washing machines and growing your own food has been replaced with shopping in modern day grocery stores. So life has gotten easier and more convenient.
To understand what mind frame a person has to be in and what they see in a lifestyle that has all but been placed in the history books, we have to ask the right person or people. Me and my family have been living this way for almost seven years. For the first 6 ½ years, we didn’t even use renewable energy; we had oil lamps for lights, and nothing we owned except this laptop computer ran on electricity.
About six months ago, some people donated solar panels for us to use, so we have made a go with that. But even though we now have some solar energy, life for us has not really changed at all. We still live as close to the land and naturally as we did before, and a convenient way of life is still not a proper way to describe our lifestyle.
I suspect there are many reasons someone would want to live off grid today, but for me it is simple, yet based on more than one reason. There are many aspects of this way of life that really speak to my spiritual side, and I’m not talking religion here folks, I’m talking a healthy respect for nature and feel-good energies that exist where peace and serenity are abundant, and the animals themselves are companions.
Secondly, I have a very large problem with the food that is being made today and sold in the grocery stores labeled as “food.” In fact, more and more of that so-called food is becoming more poisonous to people each year.
There is a problem when people see themselves as more powerful than God and think they can replace God. I’m talking about playing God by changing the food in a laboratory (genetically modified) as opposed to growing it in the ground and leaving it as it is, as God intended. So my family grows our food. We hunt, fish, wild forage, raise, barter and trade with others who do the same. The food we grow and raise is done so naturally; no chemicals of any kind are allowed in our garden or animal pens.
The food we find in the forest is naturally organic, and we make strong relationships with people who live as we do so we know what they use to grow the food we trade for.
So in closing, my advice is to grow and raise your own as much as you can, and know what you and your family are eating. You’ll find when you do that, good health comes naturally as well.
Texas County resident Merlyn Seeley (a.k.a. Spirit Walker) is a natural living expert, herbalist, Cherokee medicine man and author of numerous books. His blog address is https://freelancermerlyn.wordpress.com/.
Email dogwoodhollow17@gmail.com.