The greatest thing about my website stats have to be the ‘search terms’. (The words people type in a search engine to eventually find my website) – Every day, there’s at least one search term that makes me laugh and wonder “what on earth was this person thinking?”

Today, I’ll share the top 10 of funny search terms people have actually used to find my site….

Number 10:

“Amish” – This is actually one of the top search terms used to find Jurino.com! Every day, there’s at least one person hoping to find some information about the Amish. I’m guessing it’s because of this post about Everett Bogue. I even get this in Russian sometimes, see: “амиши”

Number 9:

“Zen lessons in the Bible” – It’s only natural that one should consult Google for this search, as the Bible surely won’t give you any answers on how to achieve a Zen-like state.

Number 8:

“When do kids stop asking why?” – I’m guessing this comes from a new parent whose little baby just turned into a questioning toddler. Is there an end to this misery? Google – tell me please!

Number 7:

“What do minimalists eat?” – Yes, “we, minimalists” are all of one species and our diet is entirely different than that of humans. Someone might have had self-proclaimed minimalists over for dinner and wondered whether or not to make anything or just put empty plates on the table…

Number 6:

“Jurino no TV” – I’m guessing that would be me, making this a legitimate search, but it’s still funny to see it typed this way. I know many people have nicknames for others, especially when their last names are difficult to pronouce (like mine). Apparently, somewhere I’m called ‘Jurino no TV’ and that’s fine with me.

Number 5:

“What are the things we have to consider?” – I don’t know whether this is a full search, or just part of one. Yes, what ARE the things we have to consider? If anyone knows, please tell me!

Number 4:

“Will my friend know if I deleted his post?” – I have no idea how this relates to any of my writing, but somehow, a person wanted to know this and instead, found… me! Bummer!

Number 3:

“God doesn’t do minimalism” – Apparently, someone thinks He doesn’t – and then searched this on Google, and found my blog, on which I say that He does. I don’t think we’ll become friends any day soon.

Number 2:

This is a tie between 2 funny search terms featuring other bloggers… they are: “Nina Yau karate lessons” and “Beans Babauta” – you learn something new every day… I didn’t know Nina gave Karate lessons, nor did I know that Leo’s ‘real’ first name was actually Beans. Or maybe someone is trying to get Leo Babauta’s killer recipe for baked beans. I don’t know, but it’s still funny.

Number 1:

*drumroll*…. The funniest search term for Jurino.com is…..
“hide Facebook account from my wife”. The silly person trying to hide his online activity from his spouse, lands here and instead finds advice on how to live faithfully and -oh, while you’re at it- delete your social media accounts alltogether. I can’t help but feel a little sorry for him ;)

Bloggers……….. please tell me YOUR site’s funniest search term! I love to hear about them!

This post is written by my wife, Linda. Like many others nowadays, she recently deleted her Facebook account and writes about her reasons to do this in the following article:

…If you type ‘delete’ in the google search field, it almost automatically fills your phrase to ‘delete facebook profile’. Keeping that in mind, I’m guessing I’m not the only one who’s fed up with the social networking websites. Even though FB is getting numerous more members every month, there’s also quite a large percentage of people leaving ‘through the backdoor’. Most people complain about privacy issues, but I think that if you’ve got nothing to hide (and you’re not so stupid as to post your home address on your profile!) why be afraid? My reasons, therefore, had nothing to do with privacy.

My reasons

It’s been about a month since I’ve deleted my Facebook profile. I could go on and on about how much time I’m saving, but apart from that obvious reason, let me share with you the reasons behind this decision:

A slumbering and a direct cause

My history teacher always said that for every decision, there has been a direct cause and a slumbering cause. (Sorry, mr. L, this is the best I could in translating the two Dutch words you used!) The direct cause for me to delete my Facebook profile was the death of one of my good friends’ mother. Picture this: a man who suddenly lost his mother starts getting messages on his Facebook-wall from really close friends, who heard the news through telephone or text-message. Soon, all 170 ‘friends’ had something to say. Most messages (still on the wall, of course) went along the lines of ‘my condoleances, dude!’ or ‘wishing you strength!’.

Now, I know I’m old fashioned, but this, for me, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I know common courtesy or –gasp- etiquette are far to be found these days, but to think that writing 3 words on someone’s Facebook profile equals giving your heartfelt condoleances for the death of his mother is just…. Well, too much.

Two days after this fiasco, I announced the fact that I was going to ‘commit digital suicide’, at least when it came to social media – I gave my e-mail address, so anyone who’d want to contact me still could – and that was the end of it.

FB makes ‘friendship’ a cheap convenience product

As for the slumbering cause… it was just a more in-depth version of the above: I do not like this ‘convenient making’ of so-called friendship. It’s been said many times before, but how can you use the word ‘friend’ when talking about people you’ve added on FB? It adds nothing to construct actual friendships in my opinion. Your real friends will be there without social media and those who will not, weren’t friends to begin with.

That classmate (from years ago!) that you’ve added because you wanted to snoop around on his profile and see what has become of him – maybe even the people that bullied you in school (because what’s, humanly speaking, more fun to see an old rival getting divorced, being broke or immersing himself in other complete misery?)  – you’re not gaining anything by ‘checking up’ on them.  Friends will come and go, and that’s ok. Some friendships last for life, but trust me – you can count those on one hand. Most friends will be there for a certain amount of time. Maybe months, maybe years – but eventually they will move out of your life. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, either. I think friendship is best seen as a flowing process.  There’s no use in trying to keep past friends in your life, because your encounters will be no more than reminiscing on ‘the good ole days’. Concerning these things, it’s best to keep the past in the past –appreciate it- and move on.

If there should be people who need the convenience of Facebook to contact me, it’s best to let them slip out of my life. If my friends will still contact me, even if they have to go through the “enormous hassle” of sending me an e-mail or a birthday-card, they’ve proven their worth. ;)

It doesn’t deserve my time

Then there’s another reason. It’s called time. We usually have too little of it. No, cross out that last statement – we usually THINK we have too little of it. A wise man once said:

Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested.

And isn’t that just true? The people that changed so much in this world were given 24 hours in each day, just like yourself. They were given no more than 80 years (some much less!) to complete their work, just like yourself. There’s absolutely no excuse for having ‘not enough time’, we simply need to rethink our priorities and spend our time accordingly.

Facebook is a time sucker. I don’t think you’ll find anyone who contradicts that. It’s so easy to get caught up in it – you get a reply on something you’ve written (by e-mail) – click the link and see so much information. Of course you’ll filter out half of it. The other half is….. worth looking at (you think). Really, you have to have a certain amount of discipline not to lose track of time and spend hours upon hours reading, watching and commenting on… in essence, nonsense.

Last year, Jurino read the Bible from cover to cover and that’s something I envy him for. Reading through the Bible is a thing I’ve had on my ‘to do list’ for a long time now, but I never completely managed to go through with. Now, how can I justify spending even half an hour a day on something as silly as Facebook, and then complain I can’t spare that same half hour to read two or three chapters from the Bible?

Rethinking my priorities, Facebook needed to go!

I’m not saying everyone should delete all their social media outlets. I agree that it can me a great tool to keep in contact with friends and relatives that live far away. I just prefer the ‘old fashioned’ and more personal way of sending e-mails and even letters. (You know – paper, envelope, stamp!) For keeping in contact with people far away, these ‘older’ methods work fine for me, and they have both the benefit of keeping correspondence private and not sucking away any more of my time than I need to complete it. All in all, I haven’t missed my profile a single moment and deleting it felt just about as good as decluttering an entire room in my house ;)

Have you ever wondered why there are so many people interested in pursuing minimalism, yet there are only a few exceptional persons that seem to have made it their way of life? For most, it seems that there is a constant fight against clutter… a fight against society, and even a fight against their own wants.  With their minds, they have to calm down their emotions whenever a good bargain pops up somewhere. “No, I’m not going to buy this, even though I’d like to. I’m pursuing minimalism. I’m putting the bargain down and will start running…now!” Yet, for the few that are counted among the ‘die-hards’, these things seem harmless. They just flow through life effortless, never once paying attention to the astonishing amount of commercials pointed their way. Never once slipping, but always remaining focused on pursuing their minimalist lifestyle. What’s their secret, you ask?

Minimalism is never a goal

Although a clean, tidy or even empty home may seem blissful, and not having to haul a giant suitcase with you while traveling is absolutely freeing, minimalism hasn’t ever been (and will never be!) a valid goal in itself. If your life revolves around minimalism, (trust me on this one) it will get boring very soon. It’ll get boring and you’ll lose focus quickly. There must be a higher pursuit than cutting back on the stuff you own.

If you take a look at most of the bloggers that write about minimalism, you’ll soon find out that each and every one of them uses their simplifying to pursue something else. A bigger goal, with minimalism being just the means to get there.

Nina Yau is what you’d call an extreme minimalist, living with only a few items stuffed in a duffel bag. Why? Not because she’s all about the duffel bag, but because she loves to explore the world and feels that owning lots of stuff will hinder her in pursuing her dreams of traveling.

Leo Babauta uses minimalism as part of his ‘Zen Habits’ lifestyle.  Along with mindless consumerism, he’s identifying all bad habits in his life and tries to trade them in for good ones. With pretty good success, may I add.

Faith Janes writes about minimalism, too. She needs to live a minimalist lifestyle, in order to live comfortably in her (combined) family home with 9 others.

My recipe for baking life’s cake is this: 3 cups of Lord Jesus, two ounces of minimalism, a heaping tablespoon of family – all tied together with a pinch of Calvinist theology. No, but seriously… (and yes, of course I’m kidding about the cake!) What I’m trying to say is this: My pursuit of minimalism, just like that of the people I mentioned above, lies in something else than just ‘minimalism’ on itself. Minimalism is a way of life, never a goal. My goal is to be a follower of Christ. Minimalism is one way that helps me achieve that goal.

If your goal is traveling the world, like Nina, minimalism will definitely get you on your way. And you know how it is with people that have set themselves goals… they’re nearly unstoppable! This is the reason it seems that resisting temptation seems effortless for them. This is the reason they’re staying on track and win the battle every time.

If you want to live a life without clutter… a minimalists’ life, just ask yourself this:

Why do I want to live a minimalist life?

Think long and hard about this one… it’s the key to find your real goal (and with that the motivation to go on!) I hope that you will soon find the answer to this question, and that it might become clear what your real motives are. Once you know your real goal, getting there becomes easier every day – especially with all the great help these inspired minimalist bloggers provide.

Image credit

Yes, it’s true. I’m back. This site is, once again, active! After about two months of absence, I decided it was time to call this blog back to life. I’m guessing a little explanation to my being away is on its place, so shall we start…

I’ve started Jurino.com last winter as a blog, depicting minimalism from a Christian point of view. I have always believed (and I still believe) that Christ calls His followers to live a life of being modest in every aspect and minimalism, to me, seems to be the perfect attitude to express that. Little did I know that this website would have hundreds of hits within the short period it has been online.

This tells me two things. First, that even though I didn’t think so at first, there is a demand for articles about minimalism from a Christian view. (I honestly thought it was all ‘Zen’ before I started) and secondly, that I should pay attention to what I claim darn well, because there are people reading what I write and associating it with my faith.

I guess it’s the last thing that pretty much scared me. Add to that the fact that I thoroughly detest the Narcissism that’s so prevalent in the world right now. (Seriously, do we really need to update all our acquaintances on the things we do on a daily basis? –> “status update: I’m having breakfast – I’m going shopping – Gee, I’m tired – I’m going to bed now, goodnight friends!“) Really, because even though I like to teach people about what I know and what I think words, I don’t want to be one that thinks much of himself.  Sometimes, the praises I got on this blog were a little too much for me.

Two days after I wrote my last post, I got interviewed for a radio programme. It was for a Dutch-Caribbean show about lifestyle. The interviewer apparently thought my pursuing minimalism was interesting enough to dedicate a programme to it. And even though I enjoyed giving the interview and speaking up about minimalism (and why I thinks it’s better than, say… its counterpart consumerism) I kinda felt irky about the whole thing. Surely, I wasn’t so important as to have your listener’s attention for an entire show? And if I was, what was it about me that was most interesting? My persona? My faith? My minimalism?

The interview turned out to be a nice conversation about the things we had in our home, the way we brought up our children and the philosophy behind wanting to own very little. It was fun, and I hope it helped people who listened, but somehow I felt a little dishonest for not explicitly mentioning the real reason behind my motives, which is my call from Christ to live a life of simplicity. Not that I didn’t want to mention it, but it was just that the readers were there for the ‘minimalism’, not the ‘Christianity’ part. Fair enough.

I’ve been absent from the ‘minimalist community’ since then, without announcing my break (because really, if you want to take a break because you fear Narcissism, announcing it only fuels that). I figured that I would lose all readers to this blog, or at least that I would see a serious decline in hits. But nothing of that. Apparently, there’s still a need out there and maybe Im’still able to contribute some useful information. So what can I say…? I’m back! And I promise not to leave without notice again… how’s that?

From now on, I’ll write a little less… with a little more meaning, and I hope we’ll have a little more fun! ;)

nor·mal  [/ˈnɔr məl/ [  {  nawr-muh l]

Conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.

normal refers to a lack of significant deviation from the average.

The definition of this word reveals that it is rooted in something that is seen as the standard. Let’s say it another way; The majority of the people accept it as the norm.

In contrary to mathematics this word is not an absolute. In the world of mathematics, no matter where you are, if you ask the question “how much is 5 and 5?” you will get the same answer. If it occurs that you get another answer than 10, then just be polite and ask the question one more time. (maybe they didn’t hear the question very well.)

Our standards

If we put the term normal to the test in the area of food, we will be amazed how far we have driven from the standards of only hundred years ago. We all know that a lot of historical happenings took place the past 100 years. Think about the first and second war, the years of Great Depression in the thirties. Lots of families had in their backyards some crops of vegetables to provide for themselves. They did their best to come up with ideas to be (at least) good in growing food for themselves. It was the way of living and if you didn’t do it, this meant that you could starve. At the end of the 19^th century, people were leaving the country to go to the big cities for a better life. With this withdrawal from the country we begin to leave also the “normal way” of growing our own food.

In the past, it was normal to get up early to milk the cows and take care of the flock. To plant some crops, grow some vegetables and fruits for food. We didn’t have a market around the block. It was the most average thing to sow your seeds in the spring and harvest in autumn.

What was normal in the past, now has become abnormal and outdated.

The 20^th century has brought us a lot of new “Normalities”. Things which help us make our life much easier. For example, let’s think about canned foods, processed foods, industrial foods and packaged foods.

May be these aren’t  the terms you were thinking about when you were eating your ice cream, pizza, chicken, energy drinks, burgers, chocolate, chips, steak and you coffee with 3 spoonfulls of sugar.

The new way of making food has made it cheaper, easier and is saving us a lot of time, money and craftiness in the kitchen. On the other hand, it also brought some new problems. Think about the rising rates of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, food allergies, ADD and lowered immune system. Some people say that there is no link between the these modern diseases and food intake…. I doubt this.

With society providing food for us, lots of us now don’t have any idea anymore what fruits and vegetables are. Most people will have great difficulties in naming more than 20 species of vegetables, let alone the idea that our children would describe rhubarb or cauliflower.

However, not because the majority is living this way, we also should follow them and be expected to do so.

Enhance your quality of life

Get out of your comfort zone, and make one step towards a healthier life. Spring is in the air, may be you have seen the little lambs and the beautiful flowers growing outside. What is then greater than taking a closer look at this process of growing life and grow some vegetables and fruits yourself. It is an astonishing thing to see for yourself what the benefits are in eating your own, homegrown, local food. It is even greater to discover that you don’t even need coffee and lots of sugar to get you going through the day. (As in my case)

Let’s not be silly. Life without coffee is not a disaster, it’s possible and you will quite possibly  feel good!

I dare you to start revolutionizing your way of eating. Get some extra fresh fruits and vegetables; try some new species, those which you usually leave at the grocery store. Buy and try some new nuts. Make some space in your garden for a square foot gardening plot. If you are now reading this and think: “How on earth am I going to do this living in a little apartment with no garden?”  I will reply that even your little balcony can provide you with some delicious food. I’ve been there and done that ;-)

Even planting and growing some seeds in your windowsill will be a solution for those of us who live in the city and don’t have a balcony. If you have enough sun, then a miracle will happen and plants will grow (when you add some water to it)

Start breaking the vicious circle of eating your modern food mindlessly and go back to eating the way our ancestors did. We need to become aware of what we are doing to our bodies. Don’t hold yourself back from nutritious meals. By eating more vegetables and fruits you will notice that your body doesn’t need additional vitamin, since it obtains most of these out of your food. This means saving money at the pharmacy too.

We, as a family, have once again start growing, planting and seeding in the garden. Come and join us!

Grow (some of) your own food and be healthier and proud of it. Leave the abnormal food for what it is and go back to living, nutritious food with a “soul” -not freak food which has been dried, processed or  canned.

Enjoy your meal!