Category: Blog

My best friend hates her job. She hates it with a passion. It is monotonous, heartless, and sedentary. She brings every ounce of genuineness to the connections she makes with her clients, but the machine she works for is soul-sucking. I want so badly for her to break out.

A few years back, I read a book written by Marianne Cantwell, entitled Be a Free Range Human: Escape the 9 to 5, Create a Life You Love and Still Pay The Bills. (Visit Marianne’s website here.)

The title obviously appealed to my rural-living, freedom-loving nature. I’ve pretty much had to become an free-ranger not by choice, but my necessity. I use my social work degree to work with people and community projects. I use my 14 years graphic design experience to help businesses. And in full circle, I use my social work facilitation skills to help businesses communicate to people. Soon after I had begun the activities Cantwell offered, there was an immediate appeal to diversify my income sources. This seemed both quite practical and personal, as someone such as myself can easily grow bored of the monotony of single purpose work.

As I move forward in the evolution of both my personal brand and my corporate brand, I often return to the considerations she laid out. Here I sit, on the edge of 2018, feeling like my suitcase is full. We’ve got this.

This afternoon, as I stood on the street in downtown Grand Forks, a merchant asked, “When are you heading to a bigger city?” I’ve never been one to effectively hide how I am feeling with the look on my face, and he had nailed it. My expression, as I scanned Market Avenue, was one of desire. A longing. A feeling of anticipation that perhaps today was drowned in despondency. Waiting for something more, something exciting, something vibrant. Waiting for the circus to come to town.

Choosing to live rural over urban sometimes feels like a sacrifice. We have fewer employment opportunities and education options. We can feel geographically, and consequently, socially isolated. It’s a bit like living in a nunnery, but your God wears rubber boots and carries a pitch fork.

Upon this realization, I promptly googled “choosing a life of celibacy” and found this. Curiously enough, some of these tips really apply to rurality choice as well.

1. Make sure this is something you are very serious about. Don’t expect rural living to be easier than the rat race you’ve gotten yourself into in the city. Be very, very realistic. Imagine what life would be like if you lived with only the population of your current neighbourhood. That great Thai place 15 minutes away? It doesn’t exist.
2. Find a friend or mentor that has gone through this period in life and ask questions about his or her reason for making their choice. What brought them to small town BC? If they weren’t born and raised there, chances are they will not be saying “I had a great job opportunity come up.” The answer will likely be lifestyle choice.
3. Avoid listening to others’ feelings about your decision, if they do not agree with yours. Rurality is your choice and yours alone. Instead, talk to friends and people that will not judge you, or this choice you have made. Friends that like dirt, and cows, and unemployment.
4. Get involved in different hobbies; better not to be around many urban areas you may be attracted to for a while if this can be avoided. You could become involved with some more agricultural activities instead.

Anyway, you catch my drift. Making the decision to “Settle Down” in a place like Grand Forks takes commitment. Do you have what it takes?

 

 

About four years ago, I joined a group of concerned citizens at the table in Grand Forks City Hall (Read “The Buck Stops Here”). I had a vested interest. I view the deer in this area as more than a novelty. I see them as a symbolic representation of humankind’s relationship with nature.

At that time, the “Deer Committee” as it soon became known, was comprised of a mixed bag of community interest. There was an avid rose gardener who dismissively referred to me as “young lady,” and minced no words in expressing her disinterest with the hoofed rats that pillaged her flower beds. I jokingly proposed we let a cougar loose in city limits, and she was nearly off with my head. Her husband calmed her with reason, “She’s only joking, honey.”

I expressed my opposition to methods of control that included “death or drugs*” (*essentially feeding deer birth control pills), and suggested we take the course of public education. I even drew the parallel to the struggles of living with an aging population base, and how ludicrous it would be for anyone to suggest we cull our seniors population. They drive too slow and get in the way, and many are sick and/or aggressive. Oh, the burden they place on our community!

I guess it comes down to values. We too are animals. Our impact on the earth is immeasurably destructive, and yet we feel the need to continue our control over the wild. Most especially when the wild encroaches and intrudes on our manicured lawns. Many argue that these antlered vermin need to be extinguished like an infestation of carpenter ants in your newly built home. But some of us are asking questions, like who we think we are to elevate our species above another.

Deer Pride.

One of the most fearful things for a home based business is silence. Silence signals rest, and inactivity. It is not the hustle and bustle of the work that leaves you exhausted, which assures you that you’re getting shit done. There is hope for future success; after all, you’re working your ass off.

But what of the quiet times? What of the days, the weeks, or sometimes the months, when there is nobody calling? The silence, the isolation, the dishes and laundry that call louder than your tidy desk. This could be the end. Panic strikes. You think of looking for a real job like everyone else.

But what if that time was like an incubator. What if you gave that time worth, as though you were contracted to creative strategize, to problem solve, to manage organizational change. These are big business problems that people are hired some good money to help corporate teams work through. But you’re a team of one. You may have a mentor and a bookkeeper, but this baby is being raised by you. Full custody.

Next time you’re feeling discouraged, and wondering if all this self employed uncertainty is really worth it, remember your contract. Enjoy the silence. The bright ideas may come when you’re washing those dirty dishes.