Simple Living

It is my dream to live a simple life. Some days I actually approach it, others not so much. Sometimes my efforts to lead a simple life actually complicate things...like the time I wanted to can tomatoes from my garden but it required a hunt to find a commercial hot plate (since I can't can on my ceramic top stove) and then I had to get a pressure cooker to fit the hot plate...and I still need to get the canning accessories to fit the pressure cooker, because it is smaller than the standard pots. Needless to say, the tomatoes never got canned, but I do have two nice pieces of kitchen ware.

I decided this week that I am only going to keep things I love in my home, so I went through my quarterly decluttering exercise. I thinned out some books, rearranged the shelves, and then looked at our family room. It was so full of furniture, there wasn't an empty space anywhere. I looked at the girls and we decided to rearrange the furniture. We shuffled items around, and at the end we had an extra couch and a secretary desk that we love but can't find a home for. We love having the extra space to breathe in our family room, and there is a great chair to relax in the piano room now instead of a huge couch.

All this leads me to wonder how much time, money and energy I waste on accumulating, caring for and moving around things I really don't need. How much simpler my life would be if I would only be content with what I have today and not look for more? This morning, I am enjoying time to write sitting in the chair in the piano room, listening to the wind chimes I got for my birthday play a gentle song in the breeze. I need more of these moments, and less of the hectic ones.