SPEAKER_01: 0:00

I strive to be a minimalist. I'm not really a minimalist, but people look at that and they think, well, simplicity is boring. Simplicity is the furthest thing from boring. It is exciting because I get to fully experience, like I get to focus my attention and truly experience life without as many distractions. It's a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

Welcome to this Empty Nest Life, the podcast dedicated to helping you embrace this transformative season with purpose, passion, and joy. In each episode, we explore stories, strategies, and insights to help turn your empty nest into an exciting new chapter. Whether you're redefining your identity, pursuing new passions, or finding peace in the pause, you're in the right place. Here's your host, the Empty Nest coach, Jay Ramsden.

SPEAKER_03: 0:45

Hey there, my emptiness friends. Do you have an inkling to be me downsize and move? Perhaps you've gone through a divorce and you're not quite sure what to do next. Well, today in studio, I have Suzanne Searce Johnson, who is a writer, poet, and simplicity advocate. And Suzanne helps people simplify by honoring their internal, relational, spiritual, and environmental connections as outlined in her latest book, Beyond Decluttering 40 Days to Experiencing Simplicity Through Connection. She's a fellow Empty Nester, and we're going to get into her story and more right now. Suzanne, welcome to This Empty Nest Life.

SPEAKER_01: 1:25

It's so good to be here, Jay. Thanks.

SPEAKER_03: 1:27

Oh, it's good to see you again. I know we've connected outside of the studio here a couple of times just to get to know each other. And you could your story, I think, will be interesting to listeners because A, the writing piece, the Beyond Decluttering piece, and you've done that, and you've actually downside all the way to a tiny home, which I think people may be interested to hear a little bit about that journey. So what drove you to say, you know what, I'm gonna leave Nashville? I think you've been there, you were almost there 40 days, uh 40 years, not 40 days, 40 years. It's interesting, 40 days and 40 years. Yeah. And then you moved to Austin recently just this past fall, uh, fall of 25. What tell me more about that? Like, how did that all come to be?

SPEAKER_01: 2:15

Well, Jay, I think a lot of people during maybe from 2015 on, a lot of people started watching those tiny house shows. And I certainly did Tiny House Nation, and I just thought, oh, this is the greatest. This would be wonderful to do. And but the reality of it, you see the like families. I can't imagine someone, a fa a couple with small children living in a tiny house. But I was enthralled. I did like everybody else and watched all the shows. But because I had already been on a simplicity journey and had simplified a lot of aspects of my life, I still had a lot of belongings, but it really intrigued me on a deeper level. The thought of reducing my need to consume, the thought of being in a community. So those things drove me further than maybe most people go. And about three years ago, my sister who lives near Austin found a tiny home community and I came to visit and just fell in love with it. And it worked out that I was able to move here once my youngest uh went off to college and I became an empty nester. So it happened pretty quickly. He went to college, and a month later, I'm in Austin.

SPEAKER_03: 3:34

So okay, so that happened quick, but your journey to the simplicity piece, I think, has been ongoing even more than just like things. Tell me more about like that viewpoint of yours of ooh, simplicity can be more than just how much you have.

SPEAKER_01: 3:52

So for I I have always been interested in simplicity. I from a young age, maybe in my 30s, I started reading books on simplicity. I found one in particular that was written in 1895 called The Simple Life by Charles Wagner, and it had timeless truths in it about just for me. Let me first define simplicity as I see it. It's letting go of the things that get in the way of the life I want. Those can be material things, they can be emotional things. They they don't, they're not limited to what's in my home. And so what he touched on in that book was about finding your purpose in life, working out your mission, and then focusing on that, allowing the other things to take a second place to that. So number of books I was reading, I still was I was decluttering, I was simplifying in some ways, but I still felt like there was more. Let me put it that way. I felt like there was more. And then about 10 years ago, some things shifted in me. Actually, I started writing a book based on his. And it, you know how when you teach something, you really learn it and you really internalize it.

SPEAKER_03: 5:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 5:12

That's when it was I had all of the bins with the pretty labels and everything organized in the closet. And I could open it and feel good and shut it and still feel good and be happy with my environment. But there was still some internal stuff, so internal work that had to be done, just look at what has what has my life been up to this point? How have I hurt other people? What do I need to do to make that right? How have I maybe not taken the risks to look to to do the things that I love to do, like writing? And so it was a couple of years of that really that internal work as well that got me to where I am today. And today, and I'll just touch on this the four areas of connect. So I look at simplicity happening through connection. I'm not sitting over here in my tiny house all by myself up on a mountain. It's about connection. The first one is nature, connecting with nature. The second is connecting with other people relationally, the third is some type of spiritual connection. We each define what that is for ourselves. And then the fourth is that internal, which is truly, you know, what I think what a lot of people who come to you are looking to do. I've I'm empty nesting, and now what? And I've got to look inside and see, you know, who am I once my children are gone? And so those four pillars, if you will, of connection are what I look at.

SPEAKER_03: 6:47

Okay. So to me, I'm hearing there's a little bit of a difference between simplicity and having a simple life. Like you can simplify aspects of your life, but until it's like all comes together, then there may be something that's tugging one way or another that makes it feel like maybe it's not so simple.

SPEAKER_01: 7:08

True. And I do think it's not, you're not one and done. And it's not just a goal, I reach that, and then I'm everything's great. It's for me, it becomes a way of life. And that's the key. And when I say simplicity becomes a way of life, it's I don't, for example, when I connect to nature daily, I'm out walking, whatever I'm doing, digging in the dirt, looking at the trees, looking at the clouds. If I'm connecting to nature, then I am, but besides the physical and the emotional benefits that it we all know that it gives us, it also informs my actions. So if I care about this planet, am I really gonna buy cheap products that are made of plastic just to just for the heck of it? Or am I gonna think about the impact on the environment? That's like just one aspect of it. If I'm connecting to other people on a deep level, putting my phone away, looking them in the eye, really listening, then I'm gonna naturally gravitate to those relationships that are meaningful to me. And I'm gonna spend time with those people. And that's simple too. To me, it that is simplicity being with the people that I'm meant to be with. And then spiritually, for me, what's simple about that is the peace that I receive. Uh, when I am connected to my higher power, then my life is simple in that I know in my gut what the right thing is to do. Or it's just again, it's just that peace and that serenity. And then the internal, again, I think you do such a good job of touching on this on your podcast and getting people to tell their stories around that. But that that internal piece where I can know I have that intuition, and so decisions are simple. It's like you said, my moving here, that decision was really quick, but it was like nine years, 10 years in the making. But I just knew I didn't have to think about it, I didn't have to ask everyone's advice. I just knew that it was the right thing for me.

SPEAKER_03: 9:30

Yeah, you were when we met one time, we were talking, I think courage came up. Right? Yeah. And it was like, oh, okay, well, how do I get the courage to move to Austin? And I think I said, well, you don't get the courage, you do things, and that's how you build courage. And so as I'm thinking about you sharing your story a little bit, it's like, oh, the nine-year ramp up were all little tiny things that built courage, right? Whether it was getting rid of things in the house or building relationships, stronger relationships with your kids, whatever it may have been for you, right? Every step along the way was something that you did to build courage. And then you were like, oh, it's just a month, boom, boom, done. Like people over here be like, yeah, I made a decision and then I moved.

SPEAKER_01: 10:16

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_03: 10:17

The ramp up to it. So if you have the four pillars, okay, I would assume people can attack those in any, right? Start to focus on them, on any order that's important to them. How did it go for you? Do you remember which one you tackled first and then second and third and then fourth?

SPEAKER_01: 10:35

So in the book, I outline that to me, the order is important if someone's just like wanting to follow a path. And it's like you say sometimes we have everything mapped out for us, right? We have our what happens when you graduate from high school, what happens when you graduate from college, what happens when you retire? But you provide this, you fill this gap of what do I do when I'm empty nesting before I'm retiring? And so just like you have that blueprint that works, I have a blueprint that is in a certain order, um, but only because it's easier to ease into it. So let me start with the nature piece is the easiest because most people don't have emotional baggage around that, right? It's pretty easy to say, okay, I'll walk once a day, or I'll just go outside and look at the clouds and see what images come up, like I did when I was a child, or just little bitty things. That's the easiest piece to start with. And then relationships, because we come in contact with people every day. I tackle that next. We come back to all, it's a cycle. We it they all get integrated. We come back to all of them, but I do put them in a specific order in the book. So it's the it's nature, then relationships, then the spiritual, uh, whatever that means to you. We explore that. But when all of that is in place, then it's, or at least starting, I shouldn't say in place, when all of that's moving, then we go internal and say, okay, now really, I can look at number one, I can look at things, my behaviors maybe that aren't great, that haven't been great in the past, and I can make those right. But then I can also see the gifts that I have, the abilities that I have, the way that I show up for people, all the good things, and look into, well, maybe there's something that's really lighting my fire that I'm not giving enough attention to. Maybe there, maybe my purpose can change. Like we have a purpose when we're raising children that's primary. And then when they're gone, maybe my main purpose shifts to something else. And so we're able to look at that. And then, of course, they all overlap, they're all integrated. So in the book, I do spend some time looking at how they overlap and what activities we can do to see that come to life in in our own journey.

SPEAKER_03: 13:04

Yeah. It was a great point that you made earlier. It's like it's not a one and done. Like you don't handle the one piece and then be like, all right, I'm done with that one. Yeah. And then move to the next one. It's like they're moving in unison with each other. Right. That's what the feeling I get how you describe it. Is okay, now I've got these all these four pillars moving together. And at any given time, I'm gonna have to work on one of them.

SPEAKER_01: 13:31

Right. That's a really good point. You're working on right now. Right now, I don't for the I'm doing more spiritual work right now. But at certain times, I can tell you specifically, there was a time when I really focused on relationships and making right the things that I had, the the ways that I had hurt people or the actions that I'd taken that that might have affected them. You mentioned, I'll bring it up, you mentioned uh I am divorced. And so I had to look at, okay, that decision, how that impacted my family, my children, all of that. And so I think it's you're right, you're very insightful. Um there are times when we focus more on one than the other, than the others, but they all, I believe, they just become this foundation that every day life gets to be interesting. And and what's funny is people think it, I'm not a minimalist, although I would love I strive to be a minimalist. I'm not really a minimalist, but people look at that and they think, well, simplicity is boring. Simplicity is the furthest thing from boring. It is exciting because I get to fully experience, like I get to focus my attention and truly experience life without as many distractions. It's a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_03: 15:35

Yes, yeah, the distractions of how much you have or that closet that's full, or you need to get rid of something, or even though we may well that's something I'm gonna do later, it still weighs on your subconscious. Piles and piles of things. And I think that's true of every single pillar you mentioned, right? If you're not getting out and walking and being in nature, like that weighs on you, even though you might not think it. Same thing with the items, the same thing with the spiritual peace, the same thing with relationships, all those components weigh on you. So with your move, is there anything that's weighing on you still from all of those? Or is there are you found some peace right now in the moment?

SPEAKER_01: 16:20

So there's so many things I could tell you about this place. We don't have all day. So I'll uh specifically say that when I moved here, I chose to move to a community. A lot of people do tiny house living on someone's property or out in the wilderness or whatever. I chose to move to a community, it's an agrihood, an agriculture neighborhood. So it's built around an organic farm. And what I have found here is a tremendous amount of community. So I guess you could say I'm working on the relational piece as well because I have connected with people on such a deep level so quickly. Working, we have a community garden that we're setting up where you can get a plot and grow your own vegetables, flowers, whatever. And we're getting it ready. We're putting soil into the beds. And so it's a volunteer thing on Saturday mornings, and I'm getting to know the community in that way. And that has been wonderful. I am an introvert by nature, and to see me like really loving to sit out on my front porch and talk to my neighbors and do all that, it's been a growth thing for me, but it's been wonderful. In addition to that, when I moved here, I had pared down. I had taken three years to pare down, and I still have too much stuff. I have my bedroom is downstairs, but I have a loft upstairs that right now, well, my cat loves being up there, but it's uh it's primarily being used for storage. I will always keep some things. I'll always have to store the Christmas decorations that I still have or off-season clothes or whatever, but there are still things that I need to go through up there to pare down further. So that's another area that I'm working on right now is okay.

SPEAKER_03: 18:18

Yeah. Tell people how much space you have, just so they know.

SPEAKER_01: 18:21

Oh, yeah. It's 399 square feet, um, which is pretty small. But it's just me. Um, and I do have a loft, as I mentioned. And I do have a front and a back porch. So the front porch uh is open. People say, well, when you want to chat with people, sit on your front porch. When you want to be outside but be alone, sit on your back porch because the back porch is more enclosed. So front and back porch, which is so nice. It's and in Austin, typically it gets hot. I moved here when it was really hot, but still, it's for me, because I grew up in Louisiana, it's comfortable most of the time. Right now, it's chilly for me here in Boston, so you'll laugh at this. It's like 50s, it gets you got into the 30s last night, and that's really cold.

SPEAKER_03: 19:15

That's really cold, yeah. But you know, degrees here now. So I'm like, yeah, this is and that'll be the high for today.

SPEAKER_01: 19:21

Yeah, no, that just I when I came to Boston, it was 75 and sunny, and I picked the perfect time. But but for me, like you I can be outside nine months out of the year enjoying the front and the back porch and chatting with people, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03: 19:39

I want to hit on something you mentioned. I don't think it was gonna come up in this conversation, but you said I'm an introvert, so you're enjoying sitting on the front porch. Is that because you found a community of like-minded folks who are gonna like you? So you know what you get if maybe you open up a conversation with somebody?

SPEAKER_01: 19:58

That's an interesting question because we are like-minded in a lot of ways, but the the different life experiences that people bring here, they're so the people here are so interesting to me. My next door neighbor's from Vermont. He uh had a farm up there. He's done everything under the sun. Um just very interesting. I we have uh vegans who live here who are educating me about I'm primarily vegetarian, but I eat meat. And I eat dairy and that sort of thing. And they're educating me about that. Like one woman who has run vegan organizations across the country. So she's just got a wealth of knowledge. And then you've got the farmers who had the vision. They've been here 20 years and they had the vision for this place. And so I get to chat with them and learn about their experience. So I think, yes, in a lot of ways, but we're also very different in our experience. And I find that very intriguing.

SPEAKER_03: 21:03

Oh, absolutely. It's like almost all of everybody's paths in the community kind of led them to this point. Yeah. But how but what they experienced outside wasn't exactly the same.

SPEAKER_01: 21:19

And I find a range. There are a lot of people around my age. But then there are youngers. There's one couple that just got married and they've been here five years. So and they're young. And so there's just this range. And of course I haven't met everybody, but just the people that I meet in working with the garden and stuff. It's a range of ages.

unknown: 21:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 21:44

How many total homes?

SPEAKER_01: 21:46

There's about a hundred right now. Um okay.

SPEAKER_03: 21:50

So that's much bigger than what I envisioned.

SPEAKER_01: 21:53

Yeah, and they're even looking at opening up a phase four, a new phase. But the market's kind of slow right now. There are some resales available. So, but it's the market's a little slow right now, but I think it'll eventually be about 120, I think is the number. I may be wrong about that.

SPEAKER_03: 22:12

Yeah, so that's much bigger than I thought, which then lends itself to being like, oh yeah, there's a lot of different people who bring a lot of different things to the neighborhood, to the conversations that you're having, what you're learning. What's one thing about yourself that you've learned in this whole journey?

SPEAKER_01: 22:31

I think just what I just hit on is I am an introvert. And by that I mean I when I'm around large groups of people, it drains my energy. And I have to just get be alone to renew that energy. And I am finding how much I love being around groups of people. Now, still not large groups, they've had they have so many activities here. That's another thing with this community. They have activities like every week, it seems like. And so, you know, Thanksgiving gathering or the Halloween party, those kinds of things are still a bit much for me. But the smaller gatherings, I love it's been great. And that's what has surprised me is normally in the past, I would just stay in my little house or apartment and not get out. And here, um, it's surprising to me how often I am wanting to be with the people in the community.

SPEAKER_03: 23:36

That is amazing. It's not like you're moving from introvert to ambivert.

SPEAKER_01: 23:40

Ambi that's a term I haven't heard.

SPEAKER_03: 23:43

Yeah, ambivert is somebody who floats between both. And it's all given on situation. It's all situational. Right. Right? They're not fully introverted and they're not fully extroverted. Like they do get energy from one-on-one or three-on-one kind of conversations, small group things, but they still need to have their downtime to rest and relax and re-energize to go at it again. They're not fully an introvert. So it's interesting that you're maybe exploring that a little bit too.

SPEAKER_01: 24:14

Right. And I've always loved people and I've always enjoyed, like you said, the one-on-one. Um, but yeah, I'm finding that's expanding a bit here. So it's never too late, right?

SPEAKER_03: 24:27

Never too late. That is true. You can always learn and grow. What's your favorite thing about your new tiny home?

SPEAKER_01: 24:37

Well, the community is great. I just like, oh, I know. This is a simple thing. It may not be my favorite thing, but I don't have to search for things. How often do you find that you can't find something and you look all over the house for it? I know where everything is. It's so great. Again, maybe not my favorite thing, but it's like a surprising thing that I hadn't expected.

SPEAKER_03: 25:03

Yeah. Um I love that you said it was a simple thing.

SPEAKER_01: 25:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 25:06

Right? You were talking about simplicity. You're like, oh, it's not my favorite thing about the house, but it's a simple thing I like about it.

SPEAKER_01: 25:12

Uh-huh. And I do that the that I wouldn't have a tiny home that didn't have a bedroom downstairs. I have all the space I need, and I'm surrounded by the things that are meaningful to me. I had a wonderful childhood, and I have a lot of little things from my childhood that bring me joy. And then, of course, pictures of my kids because they bring me joy. And I even I have a digital frame that you know scrolls through pictures of. And they can upload from through their email. All my kids can upload through their email photos to this digital frame. And I normally have it out. And I I'm careful when I turn it on because I get so distracted when it's on. I want to look at all of them. But right now I have uh Christmas, a few little choice Christmas decorations up instead of that. Very nice. But I mean, I just have the things that bring me joy around me.

SPEAKER_03: 26:10

And there's I think there's something in that, right? Where simplicity can be joyful.

SPEAKER_01: 26:17

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's uh for me, it's truly being where I am, being where my feet are.

SPEAKER_03: 26:27

And well, I love that phrase.

SPEAKER_01: 26:29

Yeah, it's just, and there's so much joy in that. And there's joy in knowing that when I connect with a person, when I have a conversation, I'm not there about me. It is my life, and I'm you know, having a conversation with them, but I don't have to be the center of it. It's getting to know that person. And it's a beautiful thing finding out that all their rich and vast experiences that brought them to this place.

SPEAKER_03: 27:02

So it's almost like you're you have some, I don't know, intentional curiosity in your new community, like learning about the people who are there.

SPEAKER_01: 27:12

Yes, yes, and I now that I think when you put it like that, I think, wow, I wish I'd had that all along. But I guess we are.

SPEAKER_03: 27:22

We're always, yeah, we're always where we are based upon our own journeys, but there is something about just being intentionally curious of, ooh, I'm eating somebody new. Like, what are they gonna bring to the conversation? What are they gonna bring to the table, if you will? And it's interesting to watch that kind of journey that you've had here in the last couple of months. We've talked about it off air a little bit, around, oh yeah, I'm here and I'm joining it, and here's all the great things about it, and I'm learning a new city. Actually, I even haven't had time to learn the new city because I'm just getting acclimated to the community.

SPEAKER_01: 27:58

Yeah, I got a Rand McNally, like a map, fold out map. I may have told you this when I saw you recently, but I got a fold out paper map because my sense of direction is not good at all. And I use navigation to go everywhere, but I need to understand where I am in relation to where I'm going. I need to see the big map, it's old school, but it's helped me. I'm actually starting to learn the city, Jay. Can you believe that? That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 28:28

Uh it's awesome. I having been there recently myself, it's a great city. It's a really great city.

SPEAKER_01: 28:35

I love it.

SPEAKER_03: 28:37

Go straight to you have this big map now. Where do you put it?

SPEAKER_01: 28:39

You don't have a whole lot of room. Oh, it's folded and put in here. No, because I actually, for the first time in my life, was able to fold, I've been able to fold it back. You remember how you would get the maps out and never be able to I somehow have been able to fold it back up and it stays in the your new surroundings require you to know how to fold a map down for a proper size. I guess I just wanted to pat myself on the back when I did it the first time.

SPEAKER_03: 29:06

Well, uh where can people find your book?

unknown: 29:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 29:11

So I think the easiest way to find all of my books are through my website. So it's Suzanne Cersei Johnson.com and the slash books if you want to go straight to that. But there's a section on my website with my books. Um it's available on Amazon, and but I'll have links directly from there.

SPEAKER_03: 29:35

Perfect. Now you have a new book coming out too.

SPEAKER_01: 29:39

So the Beyond Decluttering is right around the time this airs, probably January 13th. And then I'm working on my grown-up gap year because everything that I've experienced in the last year in preparation for this move, the downsizing process, moving into a tiny home, traveling, all of those things. I looked at it like a gap year in between what I was doing before, where I was living before, and what it's like now as an empty nester. And so I'm putting that on paper and hoping to have that one spring to summer time frame.

SPEAKER_03: 30:21

There you go. From Nashville to Austin, a grown-up gap year.

SPEAKER_01: 30:25

Yes, yes. And all points in between.

SPEAKER_03: 30:28

All points in between. I love that you're calling it that. Yeah. Because it really, I think, will resonate with people to say, oh, you know, what kids go and they finish college or they you finish high school even and do a gap year before they go to college or afterwards before they get into the workplace. But you're like, no, I took a gap year from like one part of my life to the next.

SPEAKER_01: 30:48

Well, and I do think a lot of people that I talk to, and I talk to primarily women about this type of thing, but a lot of them look at it like, I have planned for, you know, empty nesting plan for retirement. This is where I expect to be. I've got this house now, I'm settled. And since this is the plan that I've had all along, this is where I'm going to stay. But just because we've had a plan doesn't mean the plan can't change or evolve. And it's I there is a lot of opportunity. Certainly I'm coming from a place of privilege to say that, but for a lot of us, there is opportunity for uh making decisions differently, doing things differently. And um, and two, being in a tiny home and having reduced my expenses so much does allow for that being able to drive to Phoenix and see my son or fly somewhere and checking out. I have a daughter in Ecuador, and so being able to travel and see her, so all of those things kind of came together for me, but but for your listeners, certainly we're not locked into something just because that's what we thought we wanted 10 years ago. If it is what you still want, great, go for it. But as you encourage people, examine, see what brings you joy, see what your heart is telling you, and then don't assume that it can't be done.

SPEAKER_03: 32:26

Yeah, that's the best, I think, takeaway is like your example is perfect, right? Some people are like, Well, I could never do that. And some people may be saying, Well, she's single at the moment and she can live in a tiny home. Me and my spouse, how do we make that work? Well, I don't know what the requisite is for what a tiny home is. Like, is it under a thousand square feet? Is it under 1,500 square feet? What makes a tiny home? And how do you get into one? It's possible, right? There's plenty of couples who live in your neighborhood, I would imagine. What is it? What the requisite is for?

SPEAKER_01: 33:04

So they call they say a tiny home by definition is uh under 400 square feet, which is why these are 399 square feet. All the different floor plans here are all right there. But you don't have to be in a t you don't have to just be in a tiny home. It's whatever works for a per. Let's say that I lived in 2,800 square feet and had three kids and huge house, and then the kids are gone, and my spouse and I are looking at each other, what is all this here for? I had a three-bedroom townhouse, I had two kids at home. So, but at that point you say, well, maybe it's a thousand square feet, maybe it's 1200 square feet. It the square footage is irrelevant to me unless you want to go tiny. It's about what works for my life now, and then what do I want to go towards? For example, I knew that I wanted to go tiny. It was in me, it was just something I couldn't shake. So I went from a 1700 square foot townhouse with three bedrooms, a garage and an attic to a two-bedroom apartment that was about 1100 square feet. And I did that for three years. And so that helped me in the interim to downsize and say, okay, is this still what I want? And I could look at the apartment and say, this is the area that I'll have in 400 square feet. And then I was like, Yes, I could absolutely do that. And so it's just, I think it's really more about what works for an individual, a couple, a family. It's not about square footage.

SPEAKER_03: 34:41

Yeah. Excellent point. It's like what works best for you. And this is at your stage in life right now, this is what works best for you.

SPEAKER_01: 34:49

Yes, I'm so happy here.

SPEAKER_03: 34:53

I before I let you go, like what I'm just curious, what's motivating you in life right now? You've done all the things, right? You've downsized, you got to where you are, you're in your tiny home, you're meeting people. Like, what's motivating you now and what comes next?

SPEAKER_01: 35:07

So a couple of things come to mind. What one thing that's motivating me is my writing. I'm just I'm just entrenched in it and enjoying it so much, and I'm motivated with the books and my writing. I also find that maybe not a motivator, but something that I'm doing is it's basically adaptability. I'm adapting to my environment because things are not convenient in this space necessarily. Some things are convenient. It just takes a little more effort, it takes a little more effort to do laundry, for example, because I don't have a laundry room. Everything and my kitchen, I love my kitchen, but it it is tiny. I keep my pots and pans in the oven because I rarely ever use my oven. That's why I store it. So it's just the adaptability, the recognition that everything doesn't have to be easy to be useful and meaningful. But yeah, I think uh I think that's been a key for me. But the motivation, the writing, getting to know my neighbors, all of that. It gets me up. I'm fired up every day. Let me put it that way.

SPEAKER_03: 36:22

I love it. I love it. What's one tip before I let you go? One tip that people can lean into if they want to start moving towards a more simple life.

SPEAKER_01: 36:34

Oh, I think that's just slowing down long enough. Like just every day, spend five, just five to ten minutes a day to slow down, preferably be outside, but even if you're inside, just spend five to ten minutes each day breathing, being aware of your surroundings, basically mindfulness. Just spend that time in mindfulness, and it makes a difference. Five minutes can make a difference. And it can the more we do that, the more we incorporate that into our lives, the more in tune we become to who we are and what we want out of this life.

SPEAKER_03: 37:15

Yeah, so good. Five minutes, folks. That's it. This episode's gone a little bit longer than five minutes, but it's chock full of so many fantastic things. We'll make sure, Suzanne, to get your uh link to your books so people can take a look. I know you also have some poetry books that are out there that people may be interested in as well. Uh, but beyond decluttering, 40 days to experiencing simplicity through connection coming out uh in January, about this time, uh, this episode drops, and then we'll look for your grown-up gap year a little bit later in 2026. So thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01: 37:50

Thank you so much. This has been a wonderful conversation.

SPEAKER_00: 37:54

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