If you don’t know my apartment, this picture and why it makes me feel so joyful and free will take some explanation.

You’re seeing the space below my window, which faces nearly due south. For the past two months, the sun hasn’t shone directly into my apartment. On the solstice one month ago it rose almost exactly to the left, went overhead, and set to the right.

Now, a month later, it’s passing slightly lower from directly overhead at noon so that some sunlight around midday enters my apartment directly. One highlight of this picture is the sunlight directly hitting the counter and floor. It only just started doing so in the past week or so.

You might at first think, “Don’t you want the sun not to directly shine into your apartment in the heat of the summer?”

Another highlight of this picture is harder to see. On the other side of the blinds, you might notice something casting a shadow. That object is a portable solar panel I put in the window since, for the first time in two months—that is, since a month before the summer solstice—the angles work out so that the panels generate meaningful power.

That power means I can start charging my battery without going outside. I may still go outside when it’s nice out or I want to generate more power faster by getting full sunlight, but until late fall, I’ll be less dependent on going outside. That sunlight hitting my apartment floor means freedom.

To clarify, not needing electrical power at all means more freedom. I’ve reduced my needs significantly, but not to zero for my lifestyle, but still a lot.

More freedom: the kettle bells

To explain some other things in the picture, the kettle bell on the vents is holding the panels up. The jade plant on the ground goes in the window when the panel isn’t there. The vent is the air conditioning/heater unit that I haven’t used in years.

Between the yoga mat, which I found, and the kettle bells, which I bought used from Craigslist, you also see almost all my exercise equipment, unless you count the weight of my body in body weight exercises. Then there’s also my rowing machine, though I don’t use it as often as I used to.

I love being able to get workouts with little time or money equivalent or better than what people pay hundreds of dollars a month for (many New York City gyms cost that much, or so I hear) and take longer just to travel there and back than my whole workouts take.

For may people, diet and exercise are horror shows. They don’t know what works or not. They change all the time. They pay a lot. At my end, over the course of years I’ve created a system and habits that work simply and flawlessly.

More joy: what and how I learned

Since you probably know I have a PhD in astrophysics, you can probably guess I know a fair amount of astronomy. As much as I learned in the classroom and helping build the satellite, I love that I’m learning practical astronomy from hands-on practical experience.

The more I learn this way, the more I suspect our ancestors for millennia probably knew more about nature than we do, despite all our education, scientific method, and so on. I enjoy connecting with my ancestors and those who still live closer to nature today, all the more for not flying around and otherwise destroying cultures.

All this learning came from acting out of love for humans (and wildlife). I want to alleviate suffering and help change culture so we can stop having to hurt each other just to eat breakfast, a typical outcome of living unsustainably. Living sustainably means loving your neighbor as yourself.

I may use less electrical power than ever, but I feel more abundance.

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