How far away are we from reality? - Writing Wednesday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
Over the years, I have become a big fan of Ben Fogle's New Lives in the Wild documentary, where he visits people who have given up the usual rat race of life, to start living in the wild pretty much self-sufficiently.
If you don't know who Ben Fogle is, he is an adventurer turned TV-show host who, before he began filming his New Lives in the Wild documentary, did many crazy explorations across the world. One of his famous explorations was where he sailed the entire length of the Atlantic Ocean alongside his partner, James Cracknell. I remember reading about this scary adventure during an English exam where we were given an extract of Ben's documented story. I found it crazy how his boat capsized many times and he still managed to cross the entire length of the Atlantic Ocean. Despite failing his A-level exams, Ben has managed to accomplish this as well as reaching the top of Mount Everest in 2018. He is a true inspiration in my opinion.
Lorraine
However, recently, I've been watching his follow up series of New Lives in the Wild, where he returns to these people to see how they've been getting on. One of the people he returned to was the Longs family, who have been living on the remote coastline of New Zealand for over 20 years. The father an ex-medical student, Robert Long, was granted permission to live in a ramshackle old wooden house, as long as he endeavoured to conserve the natural wildlife and protect the native animals from an invasive species of possum that grew to a population of 30 million when Robert arrived. Robert was 2 days walk away from the nearest town but enjoyed living a life in peace and tranquility.
Since then, he met his wife, Catherine, when she was on a trek in the area. The two later married and had two children, a son named Christen and a daughter named Robin, who were brought up on the coastline ever since they were little. Robert, a talented artist, made a living through creating his sculptures of dolphins out of jade and this helped see his children through boarding school and university.
BBC Studios
What I found most admirable about this family was that no matter how frugal their lifestyle was, they still lived a happy life. At the age of 3, Christen walked the entire two day long journey to his parent's coastal home and he and his sister loved the quiet space and scenic views. Now Christen is living abroad in Norway and, by the age of 21, Robin had bought an entire plot of forested land and had built her own cabin home in the wild. She also now plays a huge role in helping her father protect the animals like the penguins, from the invasive possum species. In comparison to people I see in cities, I can tell that these siblings are happy and content with their lives and I truly believe that that is because of the area they grew up in.
People nowadays have forgotten the value of life and their value is instead weighed up heavily on materialistic things. We see it now when, as soon as the big clothes shops like Primark start re-opening, people are immediately at the shops again trying to get new clothes when they don't need to. People also materialise education and have become more concerned with the titles of good grades instead of what they can get out of the education they've been given. People want to have a successful career, yet are completely unhappy with the materialised job of working for someone else or for something that pays well but is boring.
We may not have to be living as off-grid like longs family but we've got to begin to see the value in the simple things in life. The Longs family have been living in a tiny wooden house as a family of 4, with very little money but they are happy because they are grateful for what they have.
If that is something that we can all implement in our own lives, I'm sure the world would be a much better place to live in.
What small thing are you appreciative of? I'm grateful for having a great family who supports me. Let me know your suggestions in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
Thanks for using my reaction boxes on previous posts! I'm glad to see that so many of you liked my last post, How time has passed! Continue tapping those reaction boxes. They really help me to make some improvements in the future!
Be sure to follow and subscribe so that you don't miss anymore of my brilliant posts and share this article with a friend who might enjoy it too!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
Video channel links:
My social media handles:
My second blog:
Previous post:
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving your comments! I really enjoy reading your positive and constructive messages. They really make my day! 💜