THE COST

   It's 5AM when you roll over to glance at the time on the clock. You lay there exhausted from the previous day of tasks that you hadn't completed and now the anxiety of this day begins to settle in. You don't have to be to work until 9, but there is so much that needs to happen before you can get there.
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​   After laying there another 15 minutes, reading through text messages and scrolling through various, insignificant posts, pictures, and articles on all 7 of your social media apps, you finally drag yourself to the bathroom, hop in the shower, and prepare yourself for the day. (That was the easy part)
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   Now it's time to get the kids up, bathe them, dress them, feed them and send them off to school. You now have just enough time to sit in an hour and a half of traffic, just to make it to work 5 minutes late. After getting reprimanded by your supervisor for the second time this month and working the longest, most boring 8-hour shift since the one you worked the previous day, your day isn't even near finished. 
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   You now have to weave back and forth in rush hour traffic for another hour and a half, just to barely make it in time to pick your kids up from extended care. Homework has to be done. Dinner needs to be prepared. Clothes have to be washed, ironed and laid out for the next day. And the kids need to be tucked away in bed.
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   It is now somewhere around 11PM. You finally get to have a glass of wine, relax, and enjoy the sound of nothingness. But, in the back of your mind, you begin to count down the minutes until you have to wake back up and endure this God awful routine, once more.
 
   In that moment you begin to question your whole life. What am I doing? Is this all there is to it? Is there more out there for me? Will it always be like this? Will things ever change?
  
​   All these questions, we essentially have the answers to; Its just a matter of adding up the costs.

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What Would It Cost ​to trade in anxiety for peace of mind? What is the trade in value on these proverbial chains that modern society has placed on us? What must we render for liberation? What is the cost of freedom?
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​  I suggest to you, that in order to be free, we must give up the areas of convenience in our lives for which we pay a hefty premium. We must be willing to learn how to do the things that we pay others to do.
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   If you really think about it, most of our adult lives will be spent going to work for someone in order to pay other people to provide services for us that we have not the time to learn or do ourselves, because we're always at work.
​   This is the system we live in. Our skills have atrophied. Our bills have grown. Our work hours have increased. But, the value of our dollar has decreased. It is within this system that very few people have enough leverage to live freely.
​In order to obtain leverage to live freely, we have to denounce the things that we have become dependent upon and to the best of our ability, become self sufficient and self sustaining. This means, growing and raising our own food; finding ways to produce alternate sources of energy; educating our own children; developing and harnessing our skills in order to barter and supplement our incomes.
​WHAT DOES ALL THIS COST US?? 
It will cost nothing but time and hard work....... but I'd much rather be doing these things at home, for myself, than sitting in 3 hours of traffic everyday!!


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Matt Ross

FREE YOUR SOUL!!!