Living Off Grid Has Always Appealed to Me
I’m the perfect candidate for living off grid.
Why do I say that?
Well, I lived outside the mainstream while growing up in a religious cult. My husband and I built a house in rural Maine at the end of a gravel road that turned into a logging trail that ran three miles through the woods. I lived in a small town in Guatemala in the early sixties that only had cold running water and power until 10 PM at night. I even retired early, sold everything that I owned, and lived for several years as a world nomad with nothing more than a backpack.
I’ve not followed a very traditional path.
Traditions mean little to me. I’m not even all that keen on holidays except that they give overworked Americans a day off. I didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas or Easter or Halloween because of our stark religious outlook based on self-denialism.
Don’t cry for me.
Not getting Christmas presents wasn't the worst experience of my religious upbringing by a long shot. I have stories to tell that would make your traditional hairs on your nostalgic heads stand on end, but I’ll save those for another day.
Nah! In some ways, growing up outside mainstream America gave me a perspective that many totally lack.
That is, being different is something a person can survive. I did, that’s for sure. Consequently, for the rest of my life, I’ve never really feared being different.
That gives me a kind of freedom that mainstreamers may never experience.
Things pop into my mind that I’d like to do, and I actually think that maybe I can do it. I never stop cooking up nontraditional approaches to living life. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that living off grid has always appealed to me.
Why do I find the thought so appealing? Welllllllll …..
I love nature. I hate people. I’m an introvert. I’m a writer and artist. I’m a minimalist. I’m an adventurer. I’m a misfit. I’m cerebral. I’m all about experiences rather than material things. I’m a prepper. I’m self sufficient.
Need I go on?
After COVID set in, giving me an excuse to isolate to the point of reclusion, I purchased some land in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Yeah, I know. The perfect place for living off grid. I actually purchased it because I wanted to gift it some day to my granddaughter as a possible climate change refuge down the road. I take trips up north a couple times a year just so I can sit in the woods on my property and dream.
I’d love to build a little A-frame nestled in the trees and disappear completely.
Years ago, long before tiny houses were mainstream, I met Harlan and Anna Hubbard. They lived on the Ohio River in a tiny house that they’d built in the woods. If you’d like to read about their lives, Harlan wrote several books. Payne Hollow is about their off-grid lifestyle. They were old when I met them and long gone now, but they had an incredible influence on my life. Harlan was a writer, a painter, and a genuine non conformist. He and Anna married a bit late in life and enjoyed an adventurous life together. They built a shanty boat and lived on it for seven years before they built their tiny house on the banks of the Ohio River. I recognized my people in them right away.
My people are generally non tribal members like me.
We don’t fit in anywhere in particular and so we free float, hanging out on the fringes of various tribes when we stumble across individuals of interest here and there.
Today, more than ever, I love the idea of living off grid. Modern life has become too complicated. Maybe it’s the combination of too much information and not enough inspiration, but people can barely hold my interest for short periods of time these days. I don’t need more drama. I need peace and quiet, a place where I can write and think. I need a place where my minimalist needs are provided without the slightest temptations to join the dead-end world of consumerism.
I’ve lived debt free for over twenty years now.
That was a dream of mine early on. Modern traditions and values don’t provide me with much satisfaction. I watch people competing for the American Dream and it looks like the American Nightmare to me.
I’m getting old which doesn’t bother me in the least.
In some ways, these are the best days of my life. And, who knows. Maybe I’ll find myself building that tiny house after all. I know I have what it takes to live off grid.
Soon, I’ll be driving along Lake Michigan and then crossing the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula.
I’ll spend time on my property watching birds, squirrels, and wild turkeys. I’ll drive a few more miles north to see the reassuring sight of Lake Superior and the Sault Ste. Marie border crossing into Canada. I call it my just in case escape route if you know what I mean.
Just in case things get so bad that I need to leave.
My mind will be refreshed and my soul soothed by the time spent in a sparsely populated region. Fewer people, fewer problems. I’ve lived all over the world and wherever there are people, there’s problems.
I’m so lucky that I wasn’t born an extrovert or that I don’t need to belong.
My definition of freedom is different than most, I guess. I shed those bonds of debt and indentured servitude years ago along with any fears of being different. I have nothing left to lose. Freedom means something different to everyone. This is my version.
Maybe I’ve been living off grid my entire life. Maybe it’s a state of mind.
Teresa Roberts is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
