How to continue to Simplify my Life
How I did it: I started by looking at the stuff in my life -- and boy was there a lot.
I come from a long line of pack-ratters, have a large family that likes giving presents, and am magpieish by nature so I had accumulated vast quantities of stuff. And I was in a mental state of wanting to always acquire more stuff -- mementos of occasions, reminders of people, lists of experiences, trackable, tangible proof that I had existed and done things and enjoyed them. This informed my interests: I spent a lot of time faffing about online or watching nonsense television or reading trash, losing myself in stories of how other people -- real or fictional -- chose to live and do great things while doing nothing of substance myself.
On 43things, I stumbled across the goal of "give away 50 things I don't need," and thought, I can do that. And I made it a focus --- I gave away easily 25 carloads of things I didn't need through Salvation Army, Freecycle, giving items of beauty and value to people I loved who would appreciate/use them more than I did. And when I completed the goal, I chose to do it again. And again.
As I got rid of things, I realized that I had more time on my hands to develop hobbies and interests. I learned how to garden by planting vegetables and seeing what happened. I learned patience as a result, and started learning how to cook. As I cooked more meals from scratch, I learned how to appreciate the tastes in food -- and the work that went into growing each element of a meal -- and stopped buying and eating processed junk. Making meals from scratch led to developing more of my crafty talents -- creating useful, beautiful items myself rather than relying on mass-market industry to produce them for me. I found joy in the ordinary, everyday activities of human life -- made extraordinary by my new way of looking at the world, seeing it with eyes grown accustomed to a larger view than my own little life.
And over time, I realized that I'd stopped caring about the status quo -- who had what, who wanted what, who passed judgment on what others thought, felt, looked like, desired. My life -- the weeks, days, and hours of it -- is now about finding and experiencing joy. What could be simpler than that?
Resources:
- 43 Things
- Make Do and Mend
- Walden, Henry David Thoreau
- Three Bowl Cookbook
