You don't have to be downsizing or living small or tiny to benefit from (or enjoy!) this movie. (Oh yeah, plus the music is great and the scenery gorgeous!) Maybe your heart won't jump as much as mine did, but I found the ideas in this movie remind me to be thoughtful about my life, how I live it and what I surround myself with.
Where did we go wrong? When did we start believing in entitlement and greed over reasonable living and using our excess to take care of one another? What are the ideas behind why we have 4,000 square foot houses in our country and big lawns that we don't use and lots and lots of stuff we don't need or even enjoy? Maybe if we can get back to that moment in history when our values shifted, we can start to repair the damage that's been done to our society by us hording our overabundance.
Fine, those are my big questions. But ideology aside - what's important right here, right now, for me (and, I argue, for you too) is how do I live my life differently? How do I use what I have (not just my possessions but my time, my strengths, my energy) to benefit others? How do I make my life bigger than just me? How do I raise my kids to live like this (and better) too?
I don't have all the answers. I have some ideas for myself. We've given away probably a third of our belongings (and more to come, hopefully!). We've tried to be resourceful in how we build - reusing and repurposing materials wherever we can. We've tried our best to open our home to others to come enjoy the beauty of the mountains and the fresh air of the Adirondacks. We want our home to reflect the peace and awe of the natural lands around us and be a respite from busy lives for friends, family and others. It's our house, but we didn't buy it just for us.
But I know there's more. There are other ways and better ways to do this living small thing!
I'd love to hear ways you have come up with to live small, whether for you that means physically downsizing your belongings or your home, or living with less or sharing more, or ways you've developed that keep you from expanding unnecessarily. I encourage you to share one thing you did today that helped you live small.
Maybe you'll be inspired while watching Tiny!
