I don’t do snippets well.  I’m pretty adept with snippy, as my cafe regulars often remind me.  But the language that drives social media — concise, artful, quippy — eludes me.  So do the visuals.  I think in essays and full-length books.  This presents a challenge as I work to communicate with the next generation.  I don’t take enough pictures, I’ve not yet managed to organize myself to make clever short videos (much less do the editing), and I’ve spent the last decade overwhelmed by online social interactions.  

I’m only 45. Already, I’m beginning to feel obsolete.  I’m constantly having to re-learn how to communicate with another generation about the importance of living slow, forming deep bonds with the land, family and community; and thriving on the pleasures and riches of the natural world without extracting them.  

Then along comes an email from a 16-year-old, Natalie, who read an article I wrote about radical homemaking.  She lives in the suburbs of a big city with her family.  The idea of living a life anchored in family, community, sustainability and social justice has her interest piqued.  She wants me to tell her how to start moving in that direction.

And for the past two weeks, I try to think of things to say to her.  Hang out the laundry?  Learn to cook?  Get chickens and feed them your food scraps?  

Natalie can go online and see a million YouTube videos and Instagram posts telling her these things.  She can perform a hashtag search:  #radicalhomemaking, #homesteadinglife, or #urbanhomestead and see the snippets that I’ve failed to document in short-form in my own life: Milking livestock, cuddling critters, gathering eggs, canning tomato sauce, knitting socks, making cheese, tending gardens.  

It’s all right there, captured by folks who came up the digital learning curve faster than I have.  Natalie can see the cornucopia of ideas and practices that she can pick from as she pursues a (hopefully) balanced future. 

And yet, I think, I’m 45.  I never held a job once I left graduate school.  I now have employees, a thriving business and several books to my name (although, I’m thinking they’re too long for anyone to read these days).  I still consider my mom and dad my best friends.  I’m sitting down every day to school my children, and our family eats home-cooked meals together morning, noon and night. Most days I manage to spend two hours off in the woods with Bob, take an afternoon nap, knit, and read.  I must be doing something right, but I’ve yet to document it with a hashtag or quick visual.  

I’ve written an entire new book on the subject (my shortest yet!  I really tried to be concise this time!).  It’s with my agent right now,  but I’ve not yet generated the requisite visuals, followers and sound-bites around it.   Still, I’m heartened to know there is at least one teenager out there (besides my own) who has the arcane patience for the written word. So Natalie, these words are for you:

Write down a quality of life statement, a vision of what you want your days as a grown-up to look like, how you want to spend your hours, including (perhaps most importantly) the pleasures you want to have time for, and the people you want to be with.  Don’t think about titles, accomplishments, or degrees.  Maybe they’ll have a role, maybe they won’t.  Go for that life you want.  If/when you start dating, dump any person who doesn’t jive with your quality-of-life vision.  If they can’t move with you toward the life that will make you happy, then you won’t be happy with them in the long run.  Don’t accept any debt or burden that could impede this vision, either.  

Next, wrap your head around the idea of true wealth.  True wealth has nothing to do with a bank account.  Bank accounts provide security, but they don’t supply true wealth.  

True Wealth is clean water that is free to drink.  It is flowing streams, ponds, lakes and waterfalls, teeming with biodiversity.  It is fresh air, nourishing food, a place to play in the sun, a tree to shade you.  True wealth is time to celebrate these things.  It is the hours you spend hanging out with your family and laughing with your friends.  It is the life challenges that focus your attention and push you to dig deep, try harder, learn more, face failure and sadness, and try again.  True wealth is the delicious rest you take from these challenges, where you refuel your energy to face them again.

When you can recognize true wealth and quality of life, living in harmony with the earth just comes naturally.  You’ll know the next steps because they will spark your curiosity, rather than greed.  The outside pressures of the conventional world:  to amass status, dollars, and things — become increasingly irrelevant.  If you engage in business, as I have done, you do it to be of service to your community while providing for your needs.  If you choose to accept employment, you do so to be part of something you believe in.  That’s because you will have true wealth on your side.  True wealth will enable you to protect your quality of life and turn your back on the temptations of a rapacious extractive economy.  It will remind you that money is only an idea, status does nothing to further happiness, and things are merely objects that require cleaning.  

Ponder these ideas for a while, Natalie.  Then go check out those hashtags and explore whatever speaks to you.  Take on a few challenges that you find appealing.  Don’t worry if you fail.  I succeeded at only a few, and failed at most of them.  I was always richer for trying.  You will be, too.*

Meanwhile, I’ll try to figure out how to reduce this essay to a snippet, create a few memes, and find a few good hashtags.  

*And if all else fails, learn to cook and hang out your laundry.