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Thursday, 26 February 2015

Simplicity and real life.



This post is inspired by the good, old Angelo Kelly (The Kelly Family).
I got a link on fb from which I've found out that Angelo and his wife are also home educating their four children. And this is not the end of curiosities.

They’ve settled down in Ireland where they’ve bought a house, rather a ruin at the edge of the forest. They intend to live there self sufficiently at least to the best of their ability.

Angelo Kelly's house


What we can spot straight away in this documentary produced by Angelo, is the modesty, simplicity and religiosity (in their case, Christianity).

The girls wear always skirts covering their knees. The colours of their clothes blend into the background which is nature, forest, stream, earth. The same applies to the interior of their house, mainly white walls and wood. Nothing seems to be “screaming” at their place. Everything gives an impression of calmness and family warmth. The lack of stimuli in the form of bright colours reminds me of Amish and after having a smattering of Montessori method I know it helps to stay focused and has a positive effect on the mood.

Angelo Kelly with his wife and children


I can see two worlds. A colourful one, shiny, fast paced, loud and that quiet one, calm, amongst nature (birds, trees).

City – village. Although village is not the same as before.

Las Vegas – a cottage by the forest

Where will we notice real values, hear our own thoughts, in a bustle or closer to the nature?

Of course in a forest, in the mountains on less frequented trails, on a wild beach, in the meadow... In those places we are able to concentrate, go inside ourselves, think through our matters. Nothing disturbs us, nothing deadens our thoughts, nothing distracts us.

Las Vegas


The city is full of stimuli. Only away from people where no-one is looking at us, where we don’t need to pretend and ingratiate ourselves with anybody, only then we find peace and we become more real, genuine, truthful and more natural.

And therefore I look at this little cottage of Angelo and I see real life. A real one, because family oriented without distracting stimuli.

Angelo Kelly's back garden


Of course you can be family oriented living in a city too, however it is more difficult as we are surrounded by clatter, adverts, speeding cars, people who observe us and whom we observe sometimes involuntary and whom we imitate or judge.

Children living in cities have less opportunity to play outside freely. They need to content themselves with back gardens, if someone is lucky to have one, or fenced playgrounds.
In a village by the forest there is more freedom and creative play. I myself recall with nostalgia holidays at my grandma’s in the village; forest, river, lake, sticks, pebbles...

There are people who don’t find themselves in the village, they don’t know what to do with themselves as there are no attractions there according to them, only boredom. They’ve been always given attractions on a plate, they haven’t developed creativity in themselves and they complain about the lack of... stimuli. They have nobody to impress and people forget how to be themselves when they constantly need to catch up with somebody.

And finally, finding God

It’s also easier in the nature. You can realise that not everything was man-made. Man only uses already existing blessings. Coming closer to nature, the soul comes closer to God. Amish provide a good example (it’s an extreme example, as Las Vegas is, but you can tell I really like them), who gave up electricity, they live in villages and they try to be self sufficient and being self sufficient is nothing but drawing as much as possible from that what God has created for us on Earth and drawing directly from it.

I’ve noticed that you can find religious people more often amongst those who are modest, who don’t flaunt, who have a relationship with nature than amongst those who lose themselves in the materialistic world.

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” [Matt 19: 24]

There is something about it...

They say the poverty is a test from God. Will we complain? Will we doubt? Or will we trust? And often it is easier for a poor person to hold on to God because it’s his only hope, he’s got nothing to lose.

Money is also a great test. Will we remember? Will we completely renounce Him believing we’ve achieved everything without His help?

A rich man often becomes proud and arrogant and he thinks he doesn’t need God to be happy.
He is All-Powerful though and can take away our property at any time by fire, flood, earthquake, fraud, bankruptcy, drop in the stock market...

We always should remember Him and be grateful to Him.

Summing up:


  • Real life lies in simplicity.
  • Wealth and splendour often cover up the true values (God, family, friendship), it’s easier to see them among people living modestly.
  • Stimuli, colours, clatter, adverts etc. make it difficult for us to focus on really important things.
  • We need to learn to break through the wall of stimuli.
  • Away from civilization we can be truly ourselves, we can find out who we really are.
  • God is to be found easier in silence and simplicity.

Although I myself suffer from overstimulation, live in a city and often eat unhealthy food, I admire people and envy those who are able to come back to nature these days.

As you can see, I still find a little bit of silence in my city to stop and ponder, hear my thoughts and keep close to God, Alhamdulillah.

And one more thing.
It’s not possible for all of us to have a cottage by the forest but stories like this one may at least inspire us to think and to improve ourselves.

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