Ok, so I did it. I signed up for the Shedventure. If you don’t know what that is, then click on the link and you’ll learn all about it. Basically, it’s an online community for people wanting to shed their lives of all the extra, unneeded stuff, whether that be physical belongings, relationships, emotional baggage, or excess pounds on the body.
Shedventure is an 8-week program designed to assist us in letting go. Bindu Wiles, the creator and leader of this program is taking a giant leap by
committing to getting rid of all but 100 of her possessions and losing 10 pounds. Now that’s truly letting go!
I’ve been wanting to do something like this for the last couple of years. 4 years ago, I was living in a 2000 sq.ft. home. I went from there to a 800 sq. ft. apartment and then from there to a 700 sq. ft. cabin. Even though I do have a storage unit holding most of my belongings, I’ve come to realize that I really don’t need all that stuff. That stuff is crowding my life. When I moved from the apartment to the cabin,
I had a huge yard sale. I went through my storage unit as well and did away with lots of stuff. It felt so good and so liberating to be free of it. My true desire would be to get all of my belongings down to less than 1000 sq. ft. I admit, though, it’s hard to part with the antique dishes my mother gave me, old photos and mementos ( I have stuff from junior high school,) and my collection of old, antique kitchen items.
I almost didn’t join the Shedventure because to be completely truthful, I’m in the process of buying a house right now. I seem to be going the opposite direction. Instead of shedding, I’ll be gaining a 1700 sq. ft house on 2 acres of land. While it is a beautiful house, it is not something I truly want for myself. It is something I’m doing for my husband and my marriage. (I won’t go into that long, emotional story right now.)
So I have committed to this 8-week Shedventure to simplify my life. I want to lose 10 pounds of body weight and 8 weeks is certainly a reasonable time frame to do that in. I also have emotional baggage to “shed.”
Even though I’ll be moving into the house, I’m still going to participate in the “shed” by getting rid of more stuff from my storage unit. I need the encouragement to sell off those dishes and antique items that I have. They aren’t needed and what am I really going to do with them anyway?
The following is a “reprint” from Sirensongs who spent 7 years as an expat in India and Nepal. Her blog, Feringhee: The India Diaries is an engaging story of her life there. I loved this article as it’s full of little cultural tidbits that will make you laugh. Enjoy! And, pay a visit to Sirensongs!
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Things you take for granted over here
Kathmandu, Nepal
Bargaining and haggling for everything
Specifically asking for “English newspaper”
Having neighbors who look like stills from National Geographic
Dishonesty (about prices, availability, life stories, when the work will be finished, etc.) and corner-cutting
Wondering how you will pay the $65.00 rent
Channel-flipping from Nepali to Hindi to English to Tibetan within a few minutes’ conversation
Monks with cell phones
Papayas, figs and pomegranates are not a luxury
A dozen Tibetan high lamas live within walking distance
Nobody has a license (for anything)
Never being cold
Being called “Didi” (big sister) in Nepal, “Chechi” or “Madama” in Kerala, “Akka” in Tamil Nadu, “Memsah
ib” in Calcutta, and either “Auntie” or “Madame” everywhere else
Prescription medicine without a prescription, or a doctor’s visit
Prescription medicine that costs $50.00 in the US costing $2.00
Every commercial building has a full time watchman and doorman in uniform
Vegetarian food
Constantly carrying an umbrella (for sun most days, and rain during monsoon)
Sandals, 365 days a year
Routinely meeting people who’ve just returned from, or are headed, to places considered dangerous by most of the world (Afghanistan, Egypt, Jaffna/northern Sri Lanka, Burma, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, trekking in western Nepal, etc.)
No spring, no fall, no changing colours; just hot season, rainy season and dry season (winter)
English teachers: pathethic losers at home, prestigious over here!
Permanently “homeless” people *not* being removed by police or housing authorities
Handmade custom-tailored clothes available on most every corner (now, you just have to be able to communicate what you want!)
Ayurvedic and homeopathic medicine in every shop; aspirin is “English medicine”
Child labour (exception: Kerala)
Beggars with stump limbs and grotesque deformities
Every week is a different religious holiday for a different religion
Flowers grow all year round
Keeping a bottle of mineral water in the bathroom just to brush your teeth
Hershey’s is an import; Cadbury is domestic
Hot water is a luxury
Being able to identify someone’s religion or region by their headgear or dress
Buying everything, from underwear to a sweater to popcorn to a mirror, on the street
Goats, cows and packs of dogs on the sidewalk
Your washing machine and bathtub both are a plastic bucket
Instead of tossing your old sandals or broken umbrella, getting them repaired by the shy lower-caste guy on the corner
Doctor’s visit: Three dollars (and worth every penny, ha ha)
Being treated like a rich person (ie, ability to stroll into five star lobbies and dawdle around without security being alerted) just by virtue of being a “foreigner”
BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper)
Taking a bus for ten cents, or a taxi across town for a dollar
Automatic VIP status for foreigners
Stores close for afternoon siesta
Stray dogs aren’t rounded up and euthanized, but are alternately kicked, beaten, fed and played with
Saving water in a bucket in your bathroom; at least one day a week there is no water supply
Keeping a flashlight, candles and a lighter handy for power cuts

Everyone on your block knows your schedule and your entire life story
The temple down the road is “only” 300 years old
Internet cafes and public phones that work on nearly every corner
Waiting for “the boy” to bring something (towel, bucket, water, napkin, tea)
Goat and other carcasses, eyes still open, for sale on the road
Having conversations with persons of a dozen nationalities in one day (German, Japanese, Israeli, Dutch, Danish, Australian, Filipino, Indian, Italian, British, Brazilian, French, Korean, Swedish, Swiss, Nepali, Bhutanese) and being able to identify them by accent
Not having a phone in the house (residential landlines are rare)
Parking anywhere (with a motorbike or moped), usually for free (exception: Pune)
Waking up at 4am to the shattering cymbals and braying horns of Tibetan morning ritual music
Being nearly grazed by passing cars, motorcycles, cycle rickshaws and bicycles a dozen times a day
Every woman has a pierced nose, some more than one piercing
The Bunch of Keys (they are always old-fashioned, long handled keys and your house always has at least 3 different locks), also suitable for use as a weapon
Taking off your shoes before entering most rooms
Wearing sunblock every day, all day and still getting tanned
Tea is a staple
Wearing a face mask against air pollution
Couples holding hands now appear shocking
Seeing headlines like “500 teachers abducted; whereabouts unknown” or “Maoists slay 5 in Birgunj” on a daily basis
Seeing police with riot shields and barbed wire road blocks on every other corner
Cracked feet
Compulsively dark shops and restaurants (electricity is very expensive, and people try to conserve to the point of living in darkness)
101 Uses for coconut hair oil (makeup remover, body lotion, moisturizer) and Tiger Balm (congestion relief, headache cure, wakey-uppy)
Stepping over human and other excrement on the road; ability to identiy excrement (human from dog, and cow from horse from elephant) at a distance
Paying $1.00 for a latte is a splurge
“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard
Inspiration can come from many things. It is what motivates us, it is that spark of creativity, it is our stimulation to action. My husband doesn’t understand my need for traveling to foreign countries, especially developing countries in the East. He is more interested in visiting new places locally, to enjoy a different scenery or a particular activity or event. While traveling is certainly fun for that reason, my own inspiration for travel is sparked by culture. Akin to a pilgrim, I’m on a spiritual journey to find my truth. Experiencing life in a different country, with a foreign language and culture opens not only my eyes but my intellect to the entire world full of possibilities!
Other inspirations for travel include escaping from the humdrum of everyday life, learning a new language, exploring historical sites, sampling local foods, climbing mountains, attending a festival, searching ancestral roots, and the list could go on & on. So, what is your travel inspiration?
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