Falling off and getting back on

So as you've probably noticed, May and June were pretty quiet around here. At least when it comes to blogging.

I started a new job at the beginning of May (although I've been a bit absent for a while due to family health issues). My new job is fantastic - I'm now in a small but international organisation. It's incredibly vibrant, everyone at every level is friendly, supportive and dedicated, and there is a strong sense of purpose, drive and achievement through everything we do. (And we do a lot.) The only downside is that the hours are long and inflexible.

As someone confessedly dedicated to simple living, I have done the reverse of many people with this philosophy - I have moved from a flexible and relatively relaxed job in a non-profit to a stressful and time-hungry job in a consultancy. This was absolutely the right decision for me, but it brings me to consider again the paradox at the heart of the life I am trying to build.

I want to build a life combining on the one hand a challenging, stimulating and satisfying profession, a life in the capital of Europe with international friends, a sense of being part of the great organism of society, with on the other hand a slow, simple, homemade life, with time for spending with family and loved ones, knitting and sewing and spinning and baking, and even cleaning, ironing, washing up - the rythms of home and family life.

These two worlds seem in some ways polar opposites, but I believe they can be reconciled and I relish the challenge. Surely it is important for people with this voluntary simplicity philosophy to be actively participating in public and political life, to be contributing to society and its structures at the global as well as local levels, and surely if we are going to survive as a species we have to adapt to living simply and sustainably in urban environments?

So I believe this combination is worth the effort it takes, but sometimes it proves hard to balance all the areas of my life, and my new job has rather swallowed up the last two months. I'm back now - having fallen off the simplicity wagon slightly but climbing back on the homemaking horse (forgive the mixed metaphors!)