Just take a look at the recent water and oil supply shortage in Manila, however no much happening in the Gamu Isabela of water shortage. Sometimes,self-sufficiency does sound like paradise. With beautiful country air to wake up to each morning, and with the sight of neighboring hills surrounding the horizon, I doubt there is a person who has not considered this lifestyle. If this is so, then why are there so many people living in the city? Why is it such a dramatic change in a person’s life to live a self-sufficient lifestyle? The answers lie with how we live now, and how it is difficult to adjust to change.
Before I make the major move I try to change the way I live, don’t use any electrical lights for a few day. Try using small lanterns. Cook all your meals over a small store and asked yourself can I live without a refrigerator? Don’t watch any television for a week and don’t touch the computer either. You may argue that the house you will be purchasing will have solar power or generator to provide you with electricity, but how will you cope on cloudy days when your solar power batteries need to be regenerated, or there is not enough power available to run your computer as well as a lamp?
Escaping the rat-race of today’s society can sound like paradise. No more alarm clocks to knock you into action. No more peak hour traffic to contend with in the morning. No more stressful workloads in the office. To escape from such a lifestyle, many people dream of living a self-sufficient lifestyle, where your closest neighbor is a carabao.
Ironically, to escape stress you are put in different stress situation that true self-sufficiency means you depend on yourself alone. You have to place your trust in the hands of nature if you plan to live in a province. Storms and typhoon could mean the end of your electricity, food supply. El Nino drought can stand in the way of the existence of a cow to supply you with milk. The city life does supply you with a lot of stress, and to many people this can be a life style choice that affects their health. But a self-sufficiency life style contains a different type of stress. Therefore, staying in province or city everything that depends on the success of this lifestyle also depends on you.
