Living without, while living a new survival perspective

When someone says survival, it means so many things. To some, it means off the grid living,  this is the type of living that is desired by many people and inspires a sort of connection to an older and simpler way of doing things. This type of living checks your dependency on the current way of life.

• Could I live without my car?
• Could I live without my computer?
• Could I live without a grocery store?
• Could I live without my cell phone?
• Could I live without gasoline or oil or electricity?

While asking these questions I began to wonder about my actual needs were of these current luxuries. There is a type of freedom in un-plugging from technology, even for a little bit or reconnecting to nature by living in it for a while. These types of questions and feelings have promoted the survival trend of the past couple of years.  

I encourage un-plugging for periods of time and reconnecting with people or places in nature. I notice when I do this that I remember those innate feelings of humanness and I remember how capable I am at those small things; building a fire, hiking, sleeping on the ground, and growing plants out of pots or earth.  

I found out that...

Yes, I could live without my PC computer, iPad computer, XM music device, cell phone, for a weekend outdoor adventure.

It was a delightful experience in which I noticed other things like the sky, the ground, itchy plants, rocks, and other amazing wonders of a plain and ordinary earth. It was even more fun doing these things with my husband, someone to enjoy the beauty as well as uncomfortable things – which I have to let you know also included mosquitos and itchy bites.

What I discovered from my experiences of re-connecting to nature is that it is all at once beautiful and also really uncomfortable. It took a day before I stopped reaching for my cell phone. Admittedly, it took till the evening before I said my last computer obsession of, “I need to email (blank person) when I get back to my computer”.  Also, the mosquito bites lasted about a week after the long-term mosquito exposure. (Unfortunately, I had eaten sweets before the trip and picked a spot by 6 lakes).

For my weekend outdoor adventure kit, I survived off the grid and even enjoyed it. I lived without my cell phone, XM, two computers and experienced other aspects of living. However, I was still dependent on my vehicle to get me there which did use gasoline and I also used my GPS to get to my pre-planned wilderness location. Could I live without my car or gasoline or Tom Tom GPS devise? Well, the answer was no for the weekend but stay tuned. Another adventure will soon be lived and another experience/experiment of living without my car and gasoline will be tested.

What type of living conditions have you fabricated in order to test your survival dependency questions?  Could you live off the grid? Without your computer, cell phone, gasoline, electricity, or grocery store?

Well, I survived! Could you?