live simply

I’m reading this short book by Peter Lawrence called the Happy Minimalist. He makes the good case for simple living, but by now I’m not reading much that I don’t already know. But by comparison the the author, I live in a cluttered mansion. For example he says he has almost no furniture. He uses a sleeping bag very happily. I think he may be suggesting we all do the same. Or at least he challenges the notion that a bed and all the bed related stuff is something that everybody “needs.” In that I have to admit he is correct. We need some kind of protected place to sleep securely, and in most places simply being indoors in “enough.” The author says he can and has moved cross country all packed into a very small car and that he could pack up and move within an hour or so probably. There is a certain virtue to that, I guess, but honestly, that is not how I want to live.

For myself, I prefer sleeping in a bed and I appreciate my sofa, dining table, and chairs. I have a bookshelf, a sideboard and a dresser that I find to be pretty and that I am glad I own and intend to keep for a long time. I have several light fixtures so I don’t have to be moving a lamp around the place all the time. I do own several books that right now I prefer to keep. And then there is the art. I have art work and art objects all over the place. I think that is the part of my place that would make me very unhappy if I couldn’t have it. I could sleep on the floor as long as there was some art on the walls. It could be less than I have now….a serene Japanese scroll could be enough. But I need art around me.

I can’t help it much. I don’t shop and buy stuff that often. I am trying right now to make sure all my favorite local coffee shops and bakeries stay in business by patronizing them with some regularity. I’m still buying yarn and knitting books, also from small local businesses. And I’m picking up those few new things for the apartment detailing, but my list there is small. I probably will do some traveling this spring. That ought to help some.

I have been thinking a lot about my sweet little room at the Ace hotel. I loved just having that small place and can’t help thinking that it was just enough. Compared to many peopl, I don’t have that much stuff, but looking around my place I’m thinking about how much stuff I have , how much of it I don’t actually use with any regularly, how much of it is just sitting around to be looked at. I’m not going to ditch my stuff anytime soon. I have plenty of room for what I have, after all, and I like quite a lot of it. But there is something to said for living with only what you can carry in your suitcase.

I am now out of debt and I need to stay there as well as up my savings so that I will be able to leave work when I want to. I have to be very careful about living a simple life which I have been doing, but I need to REALLY do it now.

The picture is my room in the Ace Hotel. Beautifully simple!

I made a new friend, a monk from the local Zen Center who has come here from Europe. We went out for brunch yesterday and had a great time. She thought my apartment, where we stopped off briefly before going out, was lovely and simple. I was really flattered by her comments and felt good about how I’m living here.

This past month I have found that I nearly always decide to wear clothes that are some combination of black, white (cream or gray) and red. I have a rainbow wardrobe really, and I do like my pastels. But it just seems right that in winter, most of the time I should make it easy on myself. I’m not going to get rid of my old favorites in other colors by any means (I will NOT give up my rose colored cashmere sweaters, for example, no way!) But I think that I probably will continue just to reach each day for some combination of the 3 winter colors.

The book is a lot about changing your attitudes, beliefs and exspectations to make room for whatever change you want in your life. The “Not So Big Life” is whatever you want it to be. A lot of me says I already knew most of the stuff in the book and didn’t need to read it at all. Another part of me says it was a good review and synthesis.

I got this book from the library and am now going through it and doing the written exercises. I really like all this author’s work so far and am enjoying this book like I was sure I would.

because it is very simple. As I’ve been looking at catalogues and stuff lately, I find that I really don’t want to buy things much any more mainly because I don’t already have places for the new things. And putting something new up is not needed in most places so I don’t seem to want anything much new.

I like my new place a lot. I’m living pertty much in one room like a studio apartment and am using the second room like a big closet or storage room. This works fine because the front room is comparatively empty and more or less serene and all the stuff is in the back where it’s accessible but I don’t have to spend time with it. I can keep the ironing board up and the vacuum plugged in, but I don’t have to try to sleep in the same space as these things.