We are not much different from our foraging ancestors. I am definitely a forager in my own right. I'm no hunter, but I feel like a lioness every time I come home from the grocery store with my gathered gains.
Although we buy our food at grocery stores and we buy our clothing with a few clicks of a mouse or a pin pad, we are indeed modern foragers. We hunt for everything we buy.
I don't like shopping. But we all know the type who loves shopping, who wants to and will spend money. They are a sales person's bread and butter. Bargain shoppers are another force entirely and the garage sale shopper could be the very embodiment of the modern forager (of all things non-food related). I'm a true scavenger, but lately I have been staying away from garage sales.
While I'm rapidly outgrowing my former pack-rat tendencies, I'm exploring one of the most creative options of the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) - to reuse.
There are so many creative ways we can reuse things. What was once useless is now a treasure. An old satellite dish becomes the roof of a gazebo. Lamps are made of old wallpaper printing rolls. For generations, people have been turning old windows into greenhouse structures for gardens. I think everyone should grow a garden.
Some people get very defensive when it comes to food, while others are quite critical. Even what is defined as food can be radically different from one person to the next.
Our backyards are filled with some of the most powerful medicines on the planet. The dandelions and other 'weeds' may even be remedies for the health issues we suffer. Each weed is also corrective for the soil in which it grows. If soil is deficient in a particular chemical, a weed will spring up that is rich in that chemical. If those weeds are regularly turned back into the soil, it will become nourished, balanced, restored. We can learn the most about reusing directly from nature.
I have read a few books about wild edible foods and I am confident I could easily feast on the contents of my yard all year long if I had to - and that's before my garden grows.
It is wise to know how to grow a variety of food, because we just never know what will happen. Living simply now, by choice, prepares us for the future - even a future that forces us to live simply, without a choice. The saying, 'Live simply, so that others can simply live,' points directly to the fact that we who have too much are living at the cost of those who have nothing.
Modern foragers, therefore, must find a balance. We may not have to compete for food with a hungry wild beast or pack of beasts, but we do run the risk of over-spending and getting into debt. We could also have stolen from us all of what we have worked so hard to acquire. Perhaps 'having it all' really just means 'having it all to lose'.
I've said it before - time away from family has more costs than one can quantify. Cutting back on spending literally gives you more time for your family. If you don't buy what you don't need, you don't have to work as much to pay for it all. Why have all the toys if you're never home to enjoy them?
Not only does over-spending rob us of family time (or alone time), it is harmful to the planet. Either way, the future is threatened because of what we perceive to be more important than it really is. Things will always create imbalance if we take more than we need and we do not share.
Next time you are rifling through a catalogue and tell yourself you 'need' that new style of furniture - even when there is nothing wrong with your current furniture - ask yourself if it's worth the real cost it will have on your life and on the very planet you share with seven billion other people and will leave for your grandchildren.
I'll take my berry patch over a catalogue any day. I'm pretty sure my grandkids will someday feel the same way, too.
Helpful hint of the week: before you go shopping, look through your cupboards, closets or even your storage spaces - and remember, new clothes become LAUNDRY!
