You know that’s the common saying that I often hear at some point and was my own justification to hustle harder than anyone. I used to believe that money was the answer to everything in life and dozens of my worldly problems. I mean, who doesn’t? To participate in the current society we need fiat “money”. Many of us are paid with fiat money to exchange our energy that we spend on probably doing the things we don’t even enjoy. We use the money to sustain our existence. Sometimes, it’s not even the one that makes us enthusiastic about our day. Sadly, perhaps some of us have been conditioned to be living in that illusion of comfiness and there is no way out.

I personally began to question everything years ago when I thought about, “ what if we don’t need money to live?”. Somehow that sort of thing left my mind until recently, I am older and everything cost a lot and that crossed my mind again. On top of that , everyone around me is asking about “ job, how much do you make, a mortgage, and whether I want to have a car” These endless streams of questions made me think,

is that what life really is? You make money, spend it on a house, car and die of old age?

I honestly refuse that idea because it just doesn’t sit well with me. I think there is more to life than just those things.

When I lived in a coastal village, I was living with a humble family who partially sustained themselves through nature and the things they grow on their own. They rarely use gas but use wood to cook. Their house wasn’t exactly well-lit and only a few dim lights here and there. It can be eerie during the night as the bathroom was outside and there were fishes in the water tub. So, I had to be careful not to scoop out the fish when I shower and do my business. In that house, the children helped the parents to gather grass and would help them with chores. They were all active and in the morning, it wasn’t a digital alarm clock that woke us all up ⸺It was the sound of a rooster. I was not only moved but found some happiness in them. For someone like me who grew up very spoiled, it was something novel and fascinating. I was the only few people who were excited about living there except after the tsunami alert. Then, I vowed to myself, maybe not the coastal town that I was looking for, it could be somewhere in the foothills of a non-active volcano mountain.

That experience was just another step of me going deep into the idea of homesteading and living off-the-grid. I learned many things that would prepare me to live in such a way. It is definitely a dream of mine to live perhaps slightly further from civilization and minding my own business and doing the things I am passionate about without stressing too much about money.

Then, the other day, @selfhelp4trolls showed me a video about an seemingly awesome community with the kind of life I wanted. The fresh ingredients from nature, a humble house as a shelter and the ability to slow down, and not stressing about money. You can watch the video below. Maybe you call them hippies but I refuse to believe that you have to be a hippie to have such a life. You can be yourself and live like them, without having certain attributes attached.

My family and I personally wanted such a life at some point. Our house is in the middle of the city and though it’s not something like in the metropolitan cities, it is still too noisy for us. The people, the culture and the environment aren’t exactly what we wanted. But change is always a scary thing. It’s not that we aren’t equipped with the skills to live off-grid; My family and I can survive just fine anywhere as long as we have some sort of shelter. It’s mostly the idea of leaving the comfort zone, the roots that my great grandparents built and passed on to my parents then on to me, one day. But for now, such a dream is only viable when one day, I get older and will have seen the world. Maybe I will change, maybe I won’t.

⸺ A sleep deprived talk coming from my "neo-hippie" alter ego😀