{"id":2801,"date":"2012-05-25T11:57:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T16:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/hungerrumblings\/?p=2801"},"modified":"2012-05-25T11:57:44","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T16:57:44","slug":"from-simple-to-sustainable-on-the-homefront","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/from-simple-to-sustainable-on-the-homefront\/","title":{"rendered":"From simple to sustainable on the homefront"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like <em>typewriter<\/em> or <em>answering machine, <\/em>the phrase <em>simple living<\/em> sounds a little quaint. Have you noticed how many faith-based and secular organizations devoted to scaling back lifestyles have called it quits? And how energy and attention have been gradually shifting from frugality towards <em>creating sustainable lifestyles<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>My life has been following this path, too. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-Complete-Tightwad-Gazette-Dacyczyn\/dp\/0375752250\"><em>The Tightwad Gazette<\/em><\/a> and <em><a href=\"http:\/\/ymoyl.wordpress.com\/summary-of-your-money-or-your-life\/\">Your Money or Your Life<\/a> <\/em>launched me along the journey described in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.elca.org\/Our-Faith-In-Action\/Responding-to-the-World\/ELCA-World-Hunger\/Resources\/Simple-Living\/Journal.aspx\">Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal<\/a>. <\/em>\u00a0Those years of simple living culminated in the great paring down of 2009 described <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/hungerrumblings\/post\/freecycling-for-fun-and-space-01052009\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/hungerrumblings\/2009\/05\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2803\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/hungerrumblings\/2012\/05\/RE-Patch-RWH-system-009.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2803\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2803\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/hungerrumblings\/2012\/05\/RE-Patch-RWH-system-009.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2803\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Capturing rainwater for gardens is part of a sustainable NW home. The ReStore in Bellingham uses containers from a food processing plant to catch and store 800 gallons of water.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>My early simple life unfolded in a city\u2014a complex system with an infrastructure and buildings shaped around assumptions from a hundred years ago. There wasn\u2019t much I could change about my urban environment (or so I thought), so I focused on decluttering my home and calendar; lowering my expenses; seeing what, personally, my son and I could live without; and organizing our lives around people and personal interests rather than mass market dictates.<\/p>\n<p>All that changed when I moved closer to family in the northwest. Surrounded by fields, hills and rivers instead of brick and mortar, I wondered about the systems around me.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/hungerrumblings\/post\/where-does-it-come-from-where-does-it-go-04022011\/\">Where did my water, electricity, and propane come from? <\/a>Where did my garbage go? How did my septic system work? What were my farmer neighbors growing, and who ate it? How could I ride a bicycle in the rain?<\/p>\n<p>To create a life that complemented or enhanced those natural systems, I would need to learn a whole new set of skills around gardening, composting, and reducing and generating energy. That\u2019s why this spring my simple life is way, <em>way<\/em> over budget. I\u2019m rehabbing a 40-year old, single-story family home into a green, energy-efficient dwelling with the tiniest possible footprint. Everything I\u2019ve read about green building is turning into practice as the rehab team tightens the building envelope, increases ventilation, and adds high-efficiency heating, a 50-year roof, low-flow everything, compact fluorescent and LED lighting and low-VOC or recycled paint. All while reusing, recycling or composting as much construction debris as possible.<\/p>\n<p>In Chicago I did the laundry in a corner of the basement under a single 60-watt light bulb. Now I have daily discussions about ambient versus task lighting for a dedicated bathroom\/utility room, dual- versus single-flush toilets, and radiant heat versus heat pumps. A basement washing machine under a dim light feels pretty Lutheran and pretty simple. It\u2019s modest, straightforward, and leaves lots of time for loving your neighbor. Sifting through lighting choices feels scandalously self-centered, self-indulgent, and not Lutheran at all! Is this really me???<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2804\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/hungerrumblings\/2012\/05\/get-turned-eco-friendly-lighting-options-21-Oct-11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2804\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2804\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/hungerrumblings\/2012\/05\/get-turned-eco-friendly-lighting-options-21-Oct-11-300x215.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2804\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Decisions, decisions, decisions!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When pesky building specs overwhelm me, I remember: Changing any life habit takes time and attention. Someday, all of us will live in homes that consume few resources and even produce their own power\u2014in the country <em>and <\/em>the city. We\u2019ll have made our existing homes greener, and green building practices will be standard. But we\u2019re not there yet. Contractors and customers still face a steep learning curve. Dissecting lighting (<a href=\"http:\/\/environment.about.com\/od\/greenlivingdesign\/a\/LED_light_bulbs.htm\">xenon, LED, solar tubes?)<\/a>, I hope, speeds it up a little.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, my house will stop being a full-time project and just be my home. Insides its sustainable envelope I can resume my regular simple life. I can get back to being Lutheran and loving neighbors I don\u2019t know. But for the next nine weeks, the carpenters, the plumber, the electrician, the heating contractor, the roofer, and the insulation\/air sealing guy are the neighbors I\u2019m called to respect and listen to with patience as we tackle a million details and create a green home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Basye, <em>Sustaining Simplicity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like typewriter or answering machine, the phrase simple living sounds a little quaint. Have you noticed how many faith-based and secular organizations devoted to scaling back lifestyles have called it quits? And how energy and attention have been gradually shifting from frugality towards creating sustainable lifestyles? My life has been following this path, too. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[109,107,62,78,108,221],"class_list":["post-2801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post","tag-consumption","tag-energy-consumption","tag-environment","tag-infrastructure","tag-lifestyle-stewardship","tag-simple-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From simple to sustainable on the homefront - ELCA World Hunger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/from-simple-to-sustainable-on-the-homefront\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From simple to sustainable on the homefront - ELCA World Hunger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like typewriter or answering machine, the phrase simple living sounds a little quaint. 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