INTERVI EW KAT E HUMBL E
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THIS ISN’T ABOUT LIVING A LIFE OF PENURY, DEVOID OF JOY AND FUN – QUITE THE OPPOSITE. IT IS ABOUT FINDING, OR REDISCOVERING, THE ASPECTS OF LIFE THAT REALLY MATTER AND HAVING TIME TO VALUE AND ENJOY THEM.
idyll of her Wye Valley home Kate found herself with too many tasks and too little time to enjoy the things she loved most.
“Culturally we are in the habit of measuring achievement by how much we can pack into a day but I’m afraid that mentality is at the expense of things that really give us pleasure. “I am like that and Ludo despairs of me.”
So Kate decided to change.
Notebook at hand she questioned why she needed to change and her answers make interesting reading for those of us who’ve enjoyed (or endured) some kind of isolation this year. I think most of us can identify with all or some of what she wrote.
She felt life was more complicated than it needed to be and she wanted to have more time to walk, read and see friends. She wanted to use less resources and become better at mending or making stuff, enjoy more time in the garden and with her pets and to counter our throwaway culture.
“What’s interesting is that in lockdown what people reached for in times of uncertainty were these fundamental things; growing stuff, making stuff, fixing stuff and spending time walking their dogs.
“These pleasures are homely and earthly and it’s what gave us pleasure.”
But in the past year Kate has tried to address that.
After losing both her own dad and her father in law as well as a close family friend in close succession she decided to take stock of her life. All the people were elderly, their deaths were natural, but still they shook Kate up, bringing her life into focus.
“It was a sharp reminder of what’s important in life. I was like bloody hell, it’s our generation next.
“I was thinking we only have one crack at this, so let’s make it count. I need to make my life as happy and fulfilling as I can. It was time to take back a bit of control.”
Kate and her husband Ludo had already made one massive lifestyle change when they left their London city life back in 2007 and became smallholders in Monmouthshire. They now run their working farm as a rural skills centre, Humble by Nature. Many would think Kate had created the perfect life but even in the rural
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