Living A simple green Life: A visit from my old friend “Depression”

Welcome

Welcome to my wee blog.My name is Andy ( The Dafthermit ) . For the last 20 odd years i have ben trying to get back to a simpler way of life and finally in my old bus up here in the Scottish mountains i am finally getting there. My time now is spent taking pictures of the highlands ,making films to show the world the beauty all around and writing something that has surprised me having had a few of my stories published , Having picked up a camera and laptop in 2008 i have really enjoyeed the journey the camera has taken me on again having had a couple of pictures in national magazines, last year three of ,my films where shown at the Loch Ness film festival. anyway i hope you enjoy your visit to my wee blog

love and light

Andy

Friday, 14 January 2011

A visit from my old friend “Depression”

This morning as i woke from a long sleep i knew i had company.

As i sat up and dangled my feet over the side of the bed my old friend depression was all around i could feel every cell in my body being visited a cloud of darkness that swept through my whole body until it reached my brain ..

For many years i have lived with it and for a short spell i was on drugs for it but in a few days they were quickly tossed into the river one day..

The modern world seems to think that everything can be sorted by taking a pill , no time to think quick take this and move on.

It is only in the last few years i have learned not to fight it ,but to accept that it is part of who i am and now i welcome it as a friend . To live in this world and not feel depressed at some time seems almost alien to me and the wash of depression shows to ME that i still care and feel for events across the globe or closer to home.

Living in the mountains and living a simple life allows me the time to let my friend come and go

Phrases from people such as pull your socks up etc ring more hollow now than they ever have done . so easy to hurl a stock phrase until the day you are visited by the black dog.

At the age of fifty i take nothing for it , the one thing i have changed is i no longer drink i believe this is what threw me on the visits

not understanding what was happening to me .

So now this old hermit sits with his friend and chats and almost always after a visit my thoughts are clearer and a visit to my studio results in a film a story etc that had been struggling to get out ..

peace and light

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A wee film about us on STVs the HOUR SHOW click on STV logo to see the film

Andy the Daft Hermit lives 45 minutes outside Inverness with his wife Mel in an old bus parked in a layby. This current home of theirs is the longest they have ever stayed in one spot. “I’ve been travelling now 25 years,” said Andy Lowe. “Mel’s been travelling 15. One of the reasons we’ve come and stayed up here is because of Mel’s health. I wanted to bring her to the mountains for fresh air and clean water and just a slower pace of life.” Mel has had breast cancer twice, skin cancer once, and for three years believed she had bone cancer after being wrongly diagnosed. Andy’s belief in the restorative powers of the north made them pack up ‘The Black Bus’ that they live in and cross the border into Scotland. New Highland home for hermit couple Andy and Mel “I think we both believe in trying to get to a more simple way of life,” said Andy, “but it’s strange for us because we are sort of hermits, or we like to live separate, but it’s not being anti-social… it’s just the way we are that allows us to be creative.” Andy first began travelling when he left the army. Fed up with bureaucracy he packed a rucksack and left for France and has been travelling ever since. By investing any money the couple have earned into solar panels and wind generators they now live a self-sustaining existence, without electric bills, and collect rain water “straight from Heaven”. “It’s not easy,” said Mel. “There might be time when there might not be enough facilities around, but you always find a way, you know?” Rather than rejecting technology, Andy blogs about his travels online and collaborates with artists from around the world via his ‘Scratchy Heid Film Studio’, which he runs from a static trailer next to the couple’s bus. He explained his philosophy: “My belief is that if you can go through life and you drop dead and you’ve got a balance there that slightly outweighs the good than the bad, you’ve done alright. “Yesterday, with what Mel’s been through with the cancer and all that, I had a woman on one of my sites there that thanked me for the writing, for the positive things, and to me that’s worth everything. You can keep your millions, we’re not interested. That is what we do.” To check out Andy’s artwork and video projects check out his website. MORE FROM THE NORTH