Why bother with the from-scratch life?

“Why do I bother going through the trouble?” I ask myself this more often than you’d think, especially on days when I’m tired. Especially when I remember that all the things pictured here—bone broth, echinacea and elderberry tinctures—I can easily buy at the store. In fact, I don’t even have to leave my house; I can just pop open my computer and have them delivered. So why, oh why, for the love of God, do I make more work for myself, needing to make these things from scratch…

Fortunately, I have a podcast 😁, and some of the most amazing people agree to talk with me. Take, for instance, one of my guests for Season 2 of “Bella Figura—The Tradition of Living Beautifully,” the one and only Shaye Elliott (@shayeelliott) of The Elliott Homestead. Many people have inspired me over the past couple years to deepen and expand the work I do with my own hands, but if I had crowns and was handing them out to those who have inspired me most, Shaye’s would certainly be among the grandest.

So I asked her this question: Why even bother going through the trouble? Because I want to know. I want some wisdom on why some of us are compelled to live this way, and her answer was, because we need spiritual rewards, and the things that give our spirits life are beyond the grocery store shelf and Instacart order. We need our souls fed and replenished, and this type of work feeds and replenishes.

Amen.

In a world that wants you to believe taking time to do things is a waste because it wants to sell you its conveniences, and then, when you find yourself empty, wants to sell you its cures for emptiness, creating things yourself, working to cure yourself, is, in fact, in its old fashioned, slow spirit, the most valuable invest of your time.