Lessessary

Over the past 20-40 years, scientists have been concerned about the impact of human activity on the environment. Like most "ideas", global warming got off to a cold start back in the 60's and slowly began warming up (puns intended) more so in the mid-late 80's. In the 1990's the majority of professionals became largely convinced that this concern not only had merit but that it (global warming) was already in motion. In the past 10 years the vast majority of scientists are fully on board with the fact that human activity has some or much to do with the rate at which the planet is warming and the dire results that await our changing planet. In the past 5 years the data and statistics are bold and undeniable: the planet has already changed and, just like a few cancer cells can grow quickly into a stage 4 crisis, so this environmental cancer is raging.

In an age where the global concern is on economics there is likely going to be little attention paid to the only thing that will slow the growth of this disease on our climate: Lessity. The rate at which the west has overused the world's natural resources is now a virus that is affecting the hearts and minds of China and India. Billions more people now seek the wild comforts, and grossly covet the life-of-want, which is marked by an insatiable desire for show, luxury and the greed, pride and selfishness that sadly exist within western thought and culture.

I am an optimist, positive thinker and lover of life. But, the bare facts are a slap in the face to anyone who researches, ponders and rightly interprets. We are in an environmental dilemma and the only way out is to become less materialistic. Less selfish. Less greedy. By Christian standards, less evil. By atheistic standards, less irresponsible. By any standard, less dependent on things. It does not matter who you are or what you believe cosmologically, philosophically or religiously; the facts are in and the result will not be the normal end of some planetary trend and neither will it be the judgement of a righteous God. It will be the fault of humans who have sought to live out of harmony and balance with the earth and its limited resources.

Let me encourage the simple life that we have forgotten or, never mastered. It is the life that brings contentment and inner peace. It is the life that embraces all that is truly good and healthful. It is the life that is sustainable. It is the life that is marked by goodness, kindness and community. It is the life that alone can slow the process of environmental decay that is happening. It is the life that is, Lessessary.

Why bmmvh?

Over the last couple of decades I have spent an increasing amount of time hiking. Weekend hikes, climbing and backpacking in Alaska, have pleasantly morphed into a lifestyle of daily hiking in Colorado with some cold weather retreats in Utah and Arizona. In fact, my "recreation hiking" has turned into an actual lifestyle where I hike everyday, and most of the year, all day.

This delightful evolution became a wonderful reality as I gradually-over years-spent more time being unsettled in mind and heart about the seeming futility of human endeavor. I specifically mean endeavors of a physical sort. Work to make money to sustain what is often just a prison of attachment to the synthetic material world. In this awareness a new freedom began to envelop my whole person to the point where currently I spend less time working during the week than I do eating. Hike. Eat. Sleep. That is what consumes my time. And, I LOVE IT!

I have very little in the way of financial resources yet, I feel like I am the wealthiest man on earth. I have also noticed that to have one (freedom or material wealth) can only happen at the expense of the other. No exceptions. Yes, I mean there are no exceptions. I will expound on this much more throughout these blog posts here at bmmvh.

Sorry, I don't have anything to sell you here at this site. Barefoot-Meditating-Minimalist-Vegetarian-Hiker (bmmvh) does not lend itself to much in the way of tangible assets. If tangible assets cease to dominate a person's life and ambitions, then there is not much to sell, is there? Encouragement is probably the greatest thing I can offer anyone. And while everyone needs some trickle of income to pay and make their way through each day, I can live enjoyably and healthily for a month on what an average person makes in 1-3 days.

Let me introduce to to bmmvh and offer a retreat from the stresses of life, a peek into a much bigger, exciting and fulfilling world along with a challenge to grow and prosper in ways that are eternally more satisfying than any other way of living or viewing the world.