for including my essay in your April issue. You also gave me the incentive I needed to get my website up and running!

Here’s the essay, and the link to it in the Women’s Press e-edition. Read it there, or here, or pick up a free print copy at your library or other news stands.

Frugally Rich and Green – Minnesota Women’s Press, April 2014, p 31

Frugally Rich and Green
Holly Jorgensen

Other little girls learned to scream at the sight of spiders, but I was lucky. My father pointed out the beneficial beauty of a black-and-yellow spider catching bugs in her web.

When we stayed at a rustic little cabin, I fell in love with the rough wood covered in vines and surrounded by quiet. As a teenager canoeing in the Boundary Waters, I was awed by the stunning attire of loons and formed friendships with fellow paddlers, which disproved the importance of fancy clothes and popular styles.

Now, living on a tiny lake, I swim through water lilies that keep it clean; I find tiny fawns among wildflowers; I am blessed daily by the gifts of Mother Nature.

It’s not surprising that I strive to live lightly on the Earth, so as not to destroy what I love most. Growing up on rummage sales, I became an expert scavenger. I relish the deep freedom I’ve found – from debt, worry and the pressure to keep up with the Joneses.

Decades of observing “trash” have helped me see the incredible waste inherent in our consumer culture – the resources that go into the gazillions of things that build profits but that contribute little to our well-being, quickly ending up in landfills.

Sitting on the high, tiny deck I call my “tree house,” I feel the breeze of wings on my cheek. A hummingbird hovers at my feeder, fueling up for its thousand-mile journey to survive the winter. I marvel at its efficient use of a bit of nectar. But I can’t ignore the community of ants inside the feeder, drifting in various stages of sugar intoxication, blind to the warning from the dead bodies floating around them. The irresistible abundance of the sweet life seduces them; they find themselves drowning in their own gluttony and fouling their beautiful world.

We can do better.

By saying “Whoa!” to the cult of accumulation and “Aah, yes!” to simplicity and sustainability, we can become more truly ourselves, rather than cogs in the wheels of consumption and waste. Resting gratefully in the bosom of sufficiency, we can revel in the treasures of nature.

Holly Jorgensenspeaks on “Saving Money, the Planet, and Your Sanity” and is writing “Free, Green, and Frugally Rich-Scenes From a Joyful Life.” hollyonthelake.com