The Cat has been looking at some special web resources on Voluntary Simplicity. Cats are specialists in voluntary simplicity, which humans envy even if they sometimes call it epic laziness. A giant recession is not a bad time to look at the cats and learn from them.
Tough times are, well, tough - frequently not pleasant. But they are an ideal time to study Voluntary Simplicity.
A lot of what is practiced in a severe recession might be described as Involuntary Simplicity. But long before the meltdown, there were a growing number of Americans who were becoming interested in Voluntary Simplicity for its own sake. Voluntary Simplicity has been defined, by visionary author Duane Elgin, as: “a way of life that is outwardly simple and inwardly rich.” It has been a somewhat quiet cultural movement, but it is a major trend that has been steadily gaining strength. It needs to be deliberately built into America’s public library collections.
Topics include simple living, country living, green living, money management, financial planning, stress management, getting organized, family life, personal enrichment, and the science of happiness.
The Cat has been pointed to a couple of websites that offer a lot of valuable information in these areas. One of them is the Simple Living Network at www.SimpleLiving.net.
Since 1996, The Simple Living Network has been providing resources, tools, examples and contacts for conscious, simple, healthy and restorative living. It is a very deep website, but what might be of special interest to librarians is that they have whole sidebars that are called libraries:
- Simple Living Library
- Green Living Library
- Cookbook Library
- Gardening Library
- Country Living Library
In these “libraries,” the site not only effectively markets respected resources in these fields, but allows them to be purchased directly from the site. It would be a quick and easy way to fill identified subject weaknesses in the library collection.
The other website that the Cat really liked is called Zen Habits and it is at http://zenhabits.net.
There may be some people who won’t go to a website with the word zen in the title. But there are just as many who will definitely go to a website with zen in the title, if only out of curiosity. At any rate, it is a very good website, extremely well organized. It is the personal property of Leo Babauta, the author of The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to Essentials. The Cat, who has the usual curiosity of her species, intends to read the gentleman’s book.
You have to scroll down on the “About” page to reach the “Popular Posts by Category.” This site is a list lover’s paradise. There are 10 ways to do this, 5 powerful reasons to do that, 15 tips for something else, 75 simple pleasures. Most of the advice is sensible and practical, though anyone who actually DOES all this is probably not a member of the human race.
Cats, of course, don’t need all this advice. They are the ultimate experts in simplicity. Most cats would be delighted to see their owners adopt more catly behavior. The Cat is an ardent supporter of the Voluntary Simplicity Movement and any collection managers who work to support it certainly deserve a purr from the
Cat
