Simple Living Works!

Look and see what others can’t see. Hear what others aren’t able to hear. Tell what you have seen and heard.

As author Vicki Robin said in our podcast interview, there are lots of blogs about simple living on the internet. It’s not hard to find them using an internet search. (My favorite search engine is Ecosia.org because their profits are used to plant trees.)

I’d like to help save you time by previewing some of the sites, podcasts and blogs on my site. If you see something that interests you, click the link and enjoy. I include both faith-based and secular. I’ll tip you off in my blog when there’s a new batch, or you can check back from time-to-time.

By listing a blog, I am not necessarily recommending it. I have added a few gentle cautions about some of them.

Champions of Simple Living Today

Previews of Simple Living Blogs, Podcasts and Sites

NEW Collaborators

• Christian Simplicity — Conversations about God, trust, and money — Money Lies // God Ideas // Finding God // Mindfulness // Simple Living // NEW, under construction, being developed by Kevin Tupper: Five guides first, blogging second, and then money-help third.
• Dave and Sheryl Balthrop: Simple Life Reboot — Making Room for That Which Matters Most: Transformational, healthy minimalism. The Balthrop’s 2-3 minute episodes are simple reading of their brief ‘essays.’
• Simple Life Together, a podcast dedicated to leading a simple life in the modern world by Dan and Vanessa Hayes.
• SimpleREV Conference — Revive and Rev It Up! + All Things SimpleREV Podcast. Besides, SimpleREV, Joel Zaslofsky is the Chief Simplifier, Curator, and Founder at Value of Simple. He also hosts the popular Smart and Simple Matters show. When he’s not enjoying nature, making his wife smile, or playing with his two young sons, Joel’s busy minimizing, being Paleo, doing public speaking gigs, connecting, reigniting his personal renaissance, and Experience Curating.
• Joshua Becker is the Founder and Editor of Becoming Minimalist, a website with over 500,000 regular monthly readers dedicated to inspiring others to find more life by owning less. Motto: Caring for Your Whole Self. His rational approach to minimalism, focusing on passion and purpose, has made him one of today’s most-influential simple living advocates. He has sold tens of thousands of his books, has been invited to speak all across America, and has made media appearances in TIME Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post Live, and the CBS Evening News. His most recent book, Clutterfree with Kids, consistently ranks among the best-selling parenting books in America. Currently, he lives in sunny Peoria, Arizona, with his wife and two young kids.
• Sarah Wehkamp is passionate about helping families find balance and simplicity in their home life. She and her husband, Chris, are founders of Parents Who, a website that equips parents with tools to create and maintain a simpler, more meaningful family life. She’s the mother to the youngest firemen in the world, identical twin boys Mr. B & Mr. C, a fair trade chocolate enthusiast, a former elementary school teacher, and an avid traveler.

THANKS to Duane Elgin for putting me onto some of the above. Don’t miss my recent podcast interview with Duane.

IMAGE: Spirit of Simplicity: Art #2-A2471

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Highlights of SLW! 2014 Annual Report

SLW! blogs are up to 195; podcast to 35 episodes. Interviews of Champions of Simple Living Today will intensify in 2015.

New Services include ‘SLW! Recommends’ Literacy Service and Previews of Simple Living Blogs, Podcasts and Sites.

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What’s NOW with SLW!

• Having an Epiphany for New Years — So, what do New Years and Epiphany have in Common? In contrast to the over-commercialized and over-sentimentalized Christmas, Jesus is “shown forth” during the Epiphany season (from Jan. 6 till the beginning of Lent on Ash Wed., Feb. 18 this year). That’s the best inspiration for New Years resolutions I know! || New Year New Daily Inspiration Calendar || Epiphany Resources: Epiphany | Epiphany Celebration | An Epiphany Celebration | Epiphany Gifts | Most series of reflections, activities and services in WHOSE Birthday? #1-17 include the Sundays after Christmas and conclude with Epiphany.Making New Years Resolutions as a Spiritual Discipline (Godspace blog)
• ‘Tis the Season – Some fascinating articles for the season.• Susan Jacobson included me in her article “Some Find More Meaning in Christmas Without Gifts” for the Orlando, FL, Sentinel. At the end she lists most of SLW! signature “10 Tips for a Simpler, More Meaningful Christmas.” • Simple Living Tips for Millennial Christians and When Decemberism Crucifies Christmas from Sojourners • Simplify the Holidays from the Center for a New American Dream • How to Have a Non-Commercial Holiday from Utne Reader
• Going to Church on Christmas Eve — To encourage planning and communication we have developed Let’s Talk About Christmas worksheet. How are we going to celebrate Christmas next year? What is really most meaningful? Who’s going to do what? Are we willing to spend less on ourselves and give more to the needy?
• SLW! Podcast WHOSE Birthday? series | TEXT | For details, see previous blog.
  
• Legacy WHOSE Birthday Is It, Anyway? Enjoy and share these BIBLICAL REFLECTIONS and ACTIVITIES through ADVENT to EPIPHANY. For details, see previous blog.
• The latest online edition of Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? #26

• NEXT Fall Festival Resources: Fall Plans blog

• Contribute to our most widely-read resource, Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? for Advent/Christmas 2015, now published online. All 26 editions are available on the SLW! site. Article Index | Submission Guidelines
• Simpler Living Alternative Daily Calendar – January
• Check out a few of SLW! thought-provoking, timely resources that might meet your personal, family or congregational/group needs. They’re all FREE. Visit Seasonal/Thematic Resource Index

• What’s Coming

  • Jan. – Interviews with Champion of Simple Living Duane Elgin, author of the classic Voluntary Simplicity
  • Feb. – Author and blogger Susan Vogt

• What’s Happened

  • Send a Message! Be the Message! | SLW! has collections of free stickers and fliers for do-it-yourself’ers to use at Christmas or year ’round through the mail and email. For more encouragement, read my blog Seeds of Influence, part 1 | part 2.
  • Recent Responses to all SLW! media with links

• What Others Are Doing

  • The Common Good Podcast 
    Episode 55: Larry Kurschner: Fixing the Electronic Waste Problem
    Episode 54: Lan Richart: Pressing for Justice in the Ecosystems Where Life Thrives or Dies
  • Seeing Systems: Peace, Justice and Sustainability – New Course from Northwest Earth Institute
  • Conversation about The OneEarth Project and the book, Blinded by Progress: Breaking Out of the Illusion That Holds Us, by Lee Van Ham. | TheCommonGoodPodcast.com, episode 42 | Lee’s new Slide Show

Podcast Reminder

You can access all SLW! podcast audio and the show notes either at SimpleLiving.startlogic.com/SLW-PODCAST or at SimpleLivingWorks.org (then click window #3).
Episode Index
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Peace, Gerald “Jerry” Iversen, Chief SLW! Activist

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*Treasury of Celebrations: published by Northstone, a division of Wood Lake Publications, BC, Canada, best known for its Seasons of the Spirit curriculum.

Through social media, we extend the mission and resources of the non-profit organization Alternatives, 1973-2011. Simple Living Works! web site home page | Theme/Seasons Index. To learn more about SLW! – our MISSION, for example — please listen to our getting-acquainted episodes, especially #1 and 2. We produce a half-hour podcast twice a month, hopefully educational and inspiring for you, your family and your congregation or group. We blog several times a week.