thoughts on simplicity.
life is crazy. always. i mean, how could it not be? we live in a world that screams "of course you have time to do this too. how can you gip yourself/your spouse/your children by not squeezing in _________ too?"
we live in a land of plenty. a land of excess. a land of do it all and rest when you're dead in the ground. but should my goal in life really be to just make it through the days and weeks? just push through all the stuff and get to the point where i can relax a little bit? i mean, isn't it better to be able to enjoy life in the midst of it?
i struggle with these things. with all of these things. i get frustrated and overwhelmed because i want to do more than i'm doing, but i don't want to kill myself to do it.
it's not just a matter of doing though. it's also a matter of having. we are programmed to want more. to buy houses that are bigger than what we need and then fill them up with things we don't need. and sometimes we try to fight against it, but sometimes we just give into it.
the whole baby thing has been hard in this respect. we haven't bought a whole heck of a lot for the baby because we're trying to de-clutter and clean out everything else first. and we have been cleaning out. cleaning out, rearranging, attempting to tackle project after project. we have tackled a handful already, and only plan to continue over the course of the next four and a half months.
but there is also the question of simplicity with a baby. babies change everything. and according to babies r us, they need a lot of stuff.
i know that there are plenty of things that a baby legitimately needs, but there are also a lot of things that are probably a bit overkill. especially for people who live in a pretty small house, and don't like clutter. we're committed to living within the boundaries of what we have, instead of moving to something bigger in order to fit our stuff.
we've learned rather quickly that stuff expands to fill the space allotted, and now it has to be pared back down to make room for someone much more important than some stuff.
it does seem rather ironic that we're attempting to simplify right before we have a baby. but i'm learning that we have to simplify constantly. we have to remind ourselves [and my husband is excellent at reminding both of us...] that we don't need a whole lot.
we already have more than we need, and thus his new rule is that if a new book doesn't fit on the bookshelf, we have to get rid of a book in order to make room for the new one. the same goes for shoes and clothes [though admittedly, i have a harder time with the shoes and clothes than the books...]
many many times i have read something, or heard something, or watched something that reminded me that the simple life really does make sense, and is far less confusing, yet i still want more. time and time again. it's maddening.
this is one of those #firstworldproblems though. i don't worry about whether i'm going to have food to eat, or clothes to wear, or a shelter over my head. and i need to be thankful for those things that i don't have to worry about. i need to be thankful for the many many things that i have. and not take for granted the simple things in life.
because
i am
blessed.
GREAT post!!
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