Simplify Your Life!
Simplify Your Life Day is 3 March.
I’m teaching a course on writing about Edinburgh at the moment, including our first memories of the city. Something that a couple of people in the group have pointed out is that in their childhood, life wasn’t necessarily easier (they may not have had much money, household tasks were often more physically demanding being just two examples of life being hard) but it was simpler.
These days life so often seems to be full of complexity, moving services to digital provision is (I think) supposed to make things easier, but a lot of people find it difficult to navigate online forms or the endless loops you sometimes find yourself in on computerised phone systems when you just, simply, want to make a doctor’s appointment or set up a direct debit. Not to mention, social media and the ever-present news cycle where things seem to be spiralling into chaos more every day.
Simplify Your Life Day therefore offers a chance to look after yourself - press pause on all the noise, take a step back and breathe.
Some ideas for how to simplify your life include: declutter; cut down on the time you spend on social media; spend more time in nature; make time for a tea break.
There are lots of other ideas on the Simplify Your Life Day page. If you have any top tips for simplifying your life, feel free to share them in the comments.
One way you may choose to simplify your life is to turn to nature for treatments for some of your health issues. Many conditions are definitely best treated by regular medicine, but nature does provide useful cures for some conditions. However, natural medicines don’t work for every individual or every condition and are not without their side effects! Best discuss with your doctor before using herbal remedies. That said, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants are the theme for this year’s United Nations’ World Wildlife Day, (also 3 March) which focuses not only on the uses of these plants but their conservation.
Farming and Conservation Working Hand in Hand
I enjoyed this short video about conservation grazing at the RSPB’s Mersehead Reserve, one of my favourite places in Dumfries and Galloway and also featuring my favourite breed of cattle, the Belted Galloway.
Invasive Species Awareness
23 - 27 February is this year National Invasive Species Awareness Week (NISAW) in the USA (and internationally in that sneaky way US based initiatives often become global). Invasive species can be a real issue for natural environments and their conservation, farming, aquaculture and can cause problems beyond those areas. One day I may write about this in more detail on this Substack, but at the moment, I’ll just direct you to the NISAW website.
Zabby recently wrote a good article on the Nature Notice Board that shares a nuanced view of Ring-necked Parakeets, a species that has relatively recently become established in London (Is it invasive? Read the article and see what you think!)
Bird Corner
On Saturday, we had a lovely walk at Cramond, at point where the River Almond joins the River Forth. The tide was well out, which meant that all the waders, Curlews, Oystercatchers and the like, were too far out to properly catch on camera. This Carrion Crow did pose for us, however, my partner getting the better photo.
I’m always alarmed at the levels of busyness that some people feel the need to operate at. Whether driven by the pressures of work or a compulsion to fill every waking minute with doing ‘stuff’, I just want to suggest taking five. Put away the phone, switch off the TV, make yourself a cuppa, and savour the sound of your own breathing. Most important of all, always listen to what your body is telling you. It rarely lies.
Thanks for this, Juliet. The course sounds interesting.
You’re right, life was simpler when I was young (60’s) but much harder too in many ways. I walked 3 miles to school, we had no central heating and no washing machine - I used to have to go to the launderette every Saturday. My Mum didn’t get a washing machine until the 80’s. We got central heating in 1979 and a phone the following year. We weren’t poor - we always had food and clothes- but both my parents worked and my Dad had an evening cleaning job to make ends meet. Life was a lot more physical, I think. We’ve gotten a bit soft and lazy in some ways. I speak for myself!