Please join me on my journey through an extreme learning curve as this former city girl learns about self sufficiency and old fashioned, natural ways to keep me and my family healthy and well fed. If you are rural bred, much of this may seem like old hat to you, but perhaps you will pick up a few pointers or could share some wisdom with this newbie. For those of you who have lived in a city or the burbs and always purchased all the goods and services you needed...newsflash: this simple life is brilliant.
I am NOT an "expert" in any of the specific areas I discuss on these pages. What I have is an insatiable thirst for learning about ways to be self reliant in these changing times so I don't have to be in fear of losing that which I am dependent upon. My goals are not to stop using the grocery store or to go "off the grid". I am grateful that the Emergency Room is still available for when one of us is injured. Discovering what people did before these options were available helps to present alternatives that simplify our way of living while actually providing a higher quality of life in many aspects.
That being said, in this highly specialized world we now live in, most look exclusively to teachers, doctors, lawyers and other such experts to give us answers to approach most everything. In the intensely personal world I now exist in, learning to bridge both ice floes means I must consider much more than just what those "qualified" individuals can offer. Perhaps while exploring, by asking better questions we can indeed find better answers.
Follow Mrs. Cog on Twitter
Follow Mrs. Cog on Pinterest
From Mrs. Cog's Corner
Just my take here. If we wish to better understand things and change how they affect us and try to mitigate or even stop the negative aspects of it, then how do we accomplish this and try to encourage others to act in the same manner? On the surface it appears to be too overwhelming for one lifetime. One of Cog's favorite "isms" you will hear us both repeat and which may apply here is... "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."
Speaking only for myself, in order to do this I try to look within, question everything and believe nothing. Doing so can be absolutely infuriating, but I think it is the only way to do what we are trying to accomplish. Which is, in my opinion, to bite by bite discover the truth, even if it is one small truth at a time. Truth does not require me to have a belief or an ideology about something because 'truth' stands on its own as self evident to that place deep down inside which I describe as my "knowing". Confirmed by everything I am, my knowing tells me when truth has been discovered.
Truth can be quite uncomfortable. It often requires me to change my behavior or the way I make decisions. Damnit, I liked my M&Ms. Why did I google what the ingredients meant? If I hadn't asked myself what was in them and then looked, I could have gone on enjoying them to the grave. I had to choose between the guilt of not investigating versus feeling stupid for consuming something I knew was not good for me. It sounds like a lose/lose... but here is the rub. What I gained out of questioning it, then researching and finding the answer was a bit of truth. In my reality, bits of truth open up a greater pathway between my inner Self and the Matrix I seem to live in. When that connection intensifies, I can feel it, I glow better.
Things have a strange way of working out. It seems that making homemade candy with more wholesome ingredients is awesome. The options are just as good as a meander down the candy isle, except I know just what into them and how they were made. The candied truth turned my lose-lose into a win-win. :-)
On the pages in Mrs.Cog's Corner, you will not hear me state many facts. I am just seeking to recreate and continue to ask questions about... everything. I find the more people in the room to share their questions and wisdom the better.