The other day I was sitting in traffic when I saw the person next to me honk at the woman in front of him because she wasn’t closing the gap in front of her fast enough.

The man proceeded to direct some fowl…sign language at her. That’s when I thought to myself, “I have got to go back to the woods.”

I’ve been living in town for the past five weeks, waiting patiently for the ice to melt on the river so I can safely get back to my cabin, which is mostly off-grid and very remote.

I’ll admit, I was pretty excited to move into town for a month…running water, warm bathroom, central heating, multiple rooms, the ability to drive to my door, restaurants galore, gym membership, Target! It was glorious but…

Living very much on-grid, after a winter mostly off-grid, turned out to be more of an experiment than I thought! Here are the results:

• The gym is great but nothing beats having physical activity built into your daily tasks.

• Eating out is way more unhealthy than I remember it being. At the cabin, I’m forced to cook instead of eating out multiple times a week and holy smokes cooking at home makes a huge difference!

• How did I ever sleep soundly in towns before? A person really gets used to pitch black darkness and wilderness noises.

• The more rooms you have, the more cleaning you have to do. A worthwhile trade-off? I’m not sold.

All of these statements should probably have the word “DUH” at the end.

I knew all of these things when I lived on my own in cities and towns but it was a surface level type of knowing. Experiencing such a contrast in a condensed amount of time reinforced those simple, yet foundational, elements.

Bottom line: I was reminded that simple is better, whether you live in the woods, a small town, or a huge city. Keeping life simple can be hard to do if we don’t get a taste of true simplicity to use as a frame of reference.

The less obvious results from this little experiment are:

• Man, a warm bathroom and central heating have been so nice but I really don’t need those things to be happy and comfortable. It’s surprising just how few creature comforts we need. As a matter of fact, I’m starting to think there’s a threshold for comfort. Once we exceed that threshold we begin to compromise our sense of freedom.

• I’m happiest when I’m achieving small goals one after the other. That might sound super obvious like, “duh Ash that’s how human beings work.” However, when I say small goals I mean really small…like starting a fire in the morning or carrying my groceries across the river. Those small tasks allow me to build momentum towards bigger tasks. They keep me from feeling stagnant. Living in a more primitive setting helps to illustrate that theory but this idea still holds true living in town, we just have to be more intentional about what those small tasks are.

• We are in such a hurry! I didn’t fully realize how fast paced we operate until I slowed wayyyy down this winter and then moved back to town in April. We aren’t only rushing around physically but also mentally. From sun up to sun down we are busy doing, doing, doing. No wonder we lose connection to ourselves so easily! I’m all about accomplishing goals but I now realize that taking time to connect to ourselves in the midst of the vortex that is modern day life is the key to accomplishing our focused goals. Otherwise, we’re just drones checking off a to-do list.

As it turns out, for me to connect to myself I need to get out into the woods or in a canoe or on a pair of skis or hang out with the local wildlife.

How do you connect to yourself?

How do you feel about slowing down, simplifying, and carving out time to do things that make you feel like yourself?

Maybe spending time outdoors is a key component to your formula? I’d love to know! Comment below!

As always, thanks for reading! Next time I write to you I will be back in the Pepper Shack!

Happy Trails,