Alternatives

Hey folks, I know it's been a while, but I've been super busy and journaling more instead. I've had a lot on my mind, but it's not really stuff I can share with the world, sorry. However, if I could ask those of you who follow Jesus to pray for my friend, I would really appreciate it. God will know who you mean, even if you don't. Thanks :)


I've been thinking a lot about alternative lifestyles. I've talked about it with a few people, and I think it'd be really cool.

The first one that I heard about that got me thinking about how I don't necessarily have to follow the normal American lifestyle that is expected of me is sharing a home. I'm not talking about me and all my other single girl friends renting an apartment and living together. I'm talking about my family, once I have one of my own, and a whole other family, sharing a house. When I heard of two christian families living together, it blew my mind. Everyone expects me to marry a man, have a few children and maybe a pet or two, and get a nice little house in a suburb and live happily ever after. But why can't we find a whole other couple, one that we're really good friends with, and live with them too? Raise all our kids in the same home, under the same roof, share pets, share meals, share furniture, share finances, everything, maybe even cars. Wouldn't that be great? Of course it would require a lot of trust on the parents' parts, you know, me trusting my husband that we're living with another woman, and him trusting me that we're living with another man. But if the trust and the faithfulness was there, the community and the deep friendships that would come from it and become deeply rooted in our home would probably be absolutely amazing.

Another thing that me and my prayer buddy, Sarah, were talking about, is intentional poverty. Living with poor people on purpose. Being poor on purpose. What if you make a lot of money? Well, I guess you could just give so much away to charities that all you have left for yourself is simply enough to get by. Or just have a low-paying job on purpose. Talk about rejecting the American Dream! I love it. It sounds so crazy, but think how much you would get out of it! It would change your life. You would see things through totally new lenses. Americans all think that we need stuff to be happy, but living a life like that forces you to form a community that can support each other, rather than just "thriving" in your own little bubble. I'm sure it would be worth it. It would definitely put things into perspective.

Or, what if I traveled to another country? Learned to live in a totally different culture?

Or adopted and raised children but never married?

Or took a vow of silence and let my actions speak rather than my words?


Readers, what are your thoughts? What sorts of alternative lifestyles can you think of, no matter how "crazy" they sound?

God bless.





Update: Everyone should watch the movie/read the book Into the Wild. I have only seen the movie, but this is the kind of radical lifestyle deviation I am talking about.