Today I carpooled.
I drove my husband to work.
When we moved to the beach where we can walk or bike most places, we downgraded to having only one car. Normally this works well for us. He bikes to work and I have the car for errands or grocery shopping. Or he takes the car and I bike or walk as. Most of our daily routine, including work, is about a mile from our home, so it is a short commute no matter the mode of transportation.
Today, though, it was very windy, and not just the beach breeze that comes with living on the Atlantic, but true wind. Strong gusts, enough to make you stumble while walking. So instead of riding his bike, I drove him to work.
Why is this significant? Why is it worth writing about? In some ways, it’s not. It’s a very routine part of our lives. He would have just taken the car on his own if I didn’t have errands a few miles away that I needed to drive to today. The significance lies in the reason; it lies in the purpose of having one car. It’s better financially, both in payments and insurance costs. It’s better for the environment. We only have room to park one car at our home, so it’s more convenient. Plus, it forces us to slow down, really be intentional about where we’re going and why. And it reflects the simplistic lifestyle we prefer to live in.
When I think about simplicity as a lifestyle, I like to filter it through the amount of time I spend with the things I own. I make decisions on what to keep or how to keep it based on the time I spend using it. For example, we don’t really use a microwave. We have limited counter space, so we store the microwave that was provided by our landlord on top of the fridge, and then pull it down to the counter when we need to use it. Why would we need to keep something set up and ready for action that we use up to 30 seconds a day? I don’t think I’ve ever actually used it. Another example, having a second car. Why would we pay hundreds of dollars per month on a vehicle that drives two miles a day, and sits stationary all day at my husband’s office and then all night at home? We’ve needed two cars and a counter-parked microwave in other seasons in our lives, when we had undulating schedules, worked farther from home, and ate more frozen foods. But currently, these are impractical tools based on the time we spend using them.
It’s worth writing about because it’s a reminder that simplicity looks drastically different from one person to the next, and from one season to the next. To me, simplicity is less about what you have and more about why you have it. It’s less about what you do and more about why you do it.
Today I carpooled.
I drove my husband to work. And I lived simply.
