For example, I first tried to "Simplify" my life by moving to Mt. Shasta and away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and later San Diego County in 1976 with my first wife and baby with mixed results.
The problem often is by trying to simplify your lives often you make them more complex in unexpected ways. So, moving to MT. Shasta in 1976 when I was 28 years old with my wife and baby son then about 2 1/2 years old actually in some ways made my life more complex in that I had to immediately adapt to unexpected things. So, even though I was much happier there in the wilderness all around me it helped end my marriage and so by 1977 and 1978 I was a single father raising my son by myself. I stayed single a few years and returned to Mt. shasta when my now ex-wife and boyfriend left Mt. Shasta for the Northern California coast. I returned with my son and helped a friend build a nice house on acreage he had there. He was an architect from France that was a friend of mine then. At this job I also eventually met my next wife through one of the workers on this house who had 2 children of her own and was my age and who divorced her husband the same year I did.
At this point "Simplifying" my life in Mt. Shasta actually worked for me from 1980 to 1985 while we bought 2 1/2 acres and built a house ourselves on our own land there in the wilderness at around 4000 feet in elevation on the side of Mt. Shasta. So, I finally got to "LIVE MY DREAM" which was sort of a Swiss Family Robinson" version of living in Mt. Shasta and home schooling our three children until the oldest was 12 years old.
At this point the needs of our children outweighed our own needs and we bought another business in the greater San Francisco Area and put our kids in really good public schools. Two went to a good grade school and one went to Junior High school there.
But, the healing of simplifying our lives from 1980 to 1985 healed my 2nd wife and I and gave us hope for the future even though we broke up in 1994 when our children started moving out one by one. My son who was the youngest of the three would have been 20 in 1994. By this time we had a new daughter born to us in 1989 who is now going to turn 33 and is married to a lawyer from Austria and living in Santa Barbara.
The point of all this is: "Simplifying one's life can be a really good and worthwhile thing. But, it might also put you through many things you presently don't expect too.
Note:
1980 to 1985 literally saved my life long term. To have even 5 years where I could live my dream of living in the wilderness at 4000 feet and cross country skiing or mountaineering skiing in the winter where it often snowed 7 feet of snow then was heaven for me. Then in the summer time hiking and swimming in pristine mountain lakes was also a heaven life for me and my children as well. But, eventually, all good things come to an end and the 5 years which seemed a little like a vacation from the hustle and bustle of life ended when we returned to the San Francisco area and bought another business and put our kids back in school after Home schooling them from 1980 to 1985. Now all three of them are married and my son has had a son too who is in grade school now and all three of them have college degrees. And I have adopted another daughter who is now married and has a son and is very successful in business now too in San Diego. But, 1980 to 1985 literally saved my life and moved me towards enlightenment and in 1985 I spent 4 months with my older kids (the younger ones were not born yet until April 1986 in India, Nepal, Thailand and Japan traveling with them and visiting Tibetan Lamas and Lamasaries in the Himalayas and trekking through the Himalayas and staying with Sherpa families at altitude where there were no roads at all then for at least within 25 miles of where we were staying. Amazing adventures with my older kids and ex-wife now.
So, Literally from 1980 to 1986 we lived a truly incredibly adventurous life and traveling the world to Asia and Canada and throughout the western United States and through amazing National Parks.
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