Go Forth and Prosper
GreenBean posted 1 week 19 hours ago — 
I shut the back cover of Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle and slid it into my library bag. It was an interesting read: more affirming than eye opening, more a map than a book. Throughout Simple Prosperity, David Wann directs us along a road toward a more meaningful life - one that we build instead of buy. He points out the pitfalls, jots down directions to the scenic back roads and promises a worthwhile destination - a well lived life.
Wann's path is neither unknown nor unmarked, however. What was once overgrown and erased by autumn's brown leaves and winter's snow is now well worn and easy to maneuver. Every day, I see more people biking to work or to errands. The thrift stores and farmers' markets bustle with new clientele. Lawns are left to die slowly as vegetable patches and native flower beds spring up. Indeed, so many people are moving toward a simpler, more honest existence - one based on meaning rather than material - that this generation has been newly labeled the YAWNs - young and wealthy (though many are not) but normal. The YAWNs live beneath their means, buying little, donating to charity, shopping local, making their own, doing without and living a fuller life. In describing this movement, Marilyn Ferguson metaphorically noted that “sometimes a people move en masse because scouts and travelers carry tales of a distant land that is fruitful and temperate.”
As I sat down to write this post, I realized that we are those scouts and travelers. I have encountered our tales as they've spread across the blogosphere - in posts and in comments.
Katrina at Kale for Sale routinely reports that the food is better in the new land. The borage offers peace as well as beauty and the farmers' market can save the soul.
After buying nothing new for nine months, Arduous brings stories of being blessed with less, of finding that true joy can be found only with people, places and experiences - not things.
Cindy at Organic Picks sends back notes of treasure discovered by getting out of the car and traveling a different way home.
And Jennifer offers the simple wealth of a full bird nest.
I too have traveled to that distant world. It is better there. The journey is peaceful, exhilarating and muscle-building all at once. The rewards are limitless. There is beauty in clothes hung out to dry and wonder at dirt caked hands that pick the season's first fava beans. There is abundance in the squirrel nest in the back tree and treasure in larva slowly morphing into ladybugs. The fruits are sweeter, the vegetables more bountiful.
The stories we travelers bring home are not myths. They are not tall tales based on fiction or daydreams. Rather, they are our experience of a more fulfilling life - one that lets our children find a lost marble and call it treasure, open the refrigerator and scream in delight that cherries are in season, revel in a picnic along a river.
If you are reading this post, chances are you too have been to that distant land. You have your own tales to tell of its riches and wonder. Please, share your stories and then go forth and prosper.
