We live at the beach next to a mountain. And we are outdoors every day, with our dog.

In summer we swim in the sea most late afternoons. In winter we go for walks wrapped up against the antarctic winds coming off the sea.

We have an idea of sunrise and sunsets getting earlier and later as the seasons progress. We note the fullness of the moon, her position in the sky, and her effect on the tides.

The girls are at a school which celebrates the cycles and seasons. So we are pretty much in touch with nature.  

This is a good thing.

The more I read about Minimalism the more I see a link to time spent in nature. It’s a back to basics approach in a time when our days rush by and our schedules are jam packed with appointments.

Our lives are full of stress. On our pockets, our relationships and our families. So the idea of a to return to a slower pace of life with emptier schedules, time to spend with loved ones and surrounded by natural beauty,  is such an important one.

The Minimalist way supports less:

• Spending less – thus lightening our financial pressures
• Committing less – thus removing some of the time stresses
• Stressing less – by aiming to do work that has some kind of personal meaning – thus lessening work stress.

And with less financial, time and work pressure, perhaps marriage could become less brittle, family life could emerge stronger, and our lives could become lighter.

I’m willing to give it a go.