Abundance

I know it must be hard to believe that I leave any details out of my epic blog posts, but... I do! Sometimes intentionally, but sometimes because I forget... in the latter case, when I wrote the post about the Laundry Stone, I was going to say something about water and energy usage when hand washing laundry. I know my energy consumption-- in terms of electricity-- has decreased, hand washing and air drying my clothes. I started to say that my "Brianna energy consumption" has increased, but I don't think that's really true. Considering how little clothing I have with me, if I wash what I wear each day, it doesn't take any more time or effort than dealing with machine washing, drying and folding loads and loads of laundry at home.

Sometimes I can't believe how much water it takes to wash my clothes. I'm pretty sure it is still less than a washing machine, but when you are standing there filling up a bucket and then dumping it out.... you really see how much water gets used, mostly for rinsing the soap out. I'll admit it's satisfying to see the dirt in the first bucket of water: makes me realize that my clothes really are cleaner now!

The style of toilets and showers common here reduce water usage as well. Some squat toilets flush, just like Western toilets, but most have a faucet and little bucket that you fill and use to rinse the toilet-- way less water than the gallons needed to flush the toilets we are used to using.

The last week and a half, since leaving the centre, I've been enjoying bucket showers. Many cheap hotels here do not have hot water that comes from the shower head, so if you want hot water, you have to fill up a bucket and scoop the water over yourself. Others don't have a shower head at all (or hot water for that matter), so I've had a lot of bucket showers lately. Interestingly, bucket showers still feel good, I still get clean, and I know I am using significantly less water than during a normal shower. It's amazing how little water you actually need to soap up and rinse off.

(I just heard a loud "moooo" and looked up to see a guy walking along wheeling his bicycle with one hand and holding the rope for his cow with the other. Guess it's hard to ride your bike in traffic and walk a cow at the same time, although it's about the only thing I haven't seen someone do on a bike in India-- from woman riding side-saddle in a sari behind the driver to men with a load of egg crates higher than my head strapped on the back).

One of the things I love about backpacking is that it reminds me how little stuff I really need. I can carry everything I need in my pack. And at that, I still have about twice as much stuff as I really need. I played a game yesterday: I took everything in my pack and made two piles, one with stuff I had used in the last week and one with everything I hadn't. Guess which pile was bigger! I'm still struggling to weed stuff out of my pack, though, because my brain keeps thinking "what about this hypothetical scenario" or "what if this happens." It's amazing how busy it can keep itself.

When backpacking, a good rule is that everything in your pack should serve at least two purposes. You also find how you can make do is almost any situation. I noticed both of these principles in action on the farms in Italy. There was very little running out to buy something to solve a problem. A solution-- a good one-- could almost always be found/made/put together with stuff already on hand. And everything served multiple purposes: there wasn't a table to cooking, one for eating, a desk for writing, a computer desk, a place to fold laundry, etc etc etc ad nauseam. One table could serve all those purposes. And here's the funny thing: when you do that, you are not doing without. Typically, I've noticed, you wind up with MORE because you aren't spending energy (attention, time, and money) investing in and keeping track of all that stuff (notice: I keep saying "stuff", but there's another word I keep thinking....). As for my pack, less stuff means much more happiness because whatever I have, I am carrying! Being wisely frugal-- simplifying-- leads to abundance.

Now notice, I said frugal, not miserly. There is a point at which the scales tip and go the other way. When life is too cramped or you don't have the things you need. But I'm pretty sure most of us writing and reading this blog don't have that problem. The thing is, by simplifying, when you really do need something, you have the space (and money) to get it. And the crazy thing, about traveling in this day and age of inernet cafes and guide books, is that, even in a village in India, when you need something you don't have-- which you will, no matter how much stuff you carry (who ever thought I'd need bobby pins India?)-- you can buy it! And that experience will almost always be more entertaining than lugging it about all over creation.

(Speaking of conserving, this internet cafe-- with its three computers--turns off the monitors between users!)

Happy New Year (again!)