Living Smaller

The summer is now pretty much here and after months of the winter blues (okay clinical depression but the winter blues is more poetic) I am coming back to a feeling of lightness. I spent two weeks away from internets and telephones while I practiced yoga and meditated twice a day. I returned home to find that my landscaping was not proceeding on schedule and thought the blasting was complete the removal of the tonnes of rock and other assorted debris was not. It was no big deal, stuff like that happens. One of the consequences of this however was that during the day they contractors had to disconnect the water, power, phone and cable. At first I felt very inconvenienced but after a few minutes I realized that I could use the time to do things I had never done because my attention was drawn elsewhere.

I first started with organizing my books. It had always seem like a monumental and monumentally boring task so I put it off endlessly. But once I got started doing it it became a very interesting practice. I spent a fair bit of time deciding how to put what type of books where. It took several hours and many trips up and down stairs but I eventually got them sorted and shelved. The amazing thing was that I had at two or more copies of some books.It really goes to show how worthwhile it is to live an organized life.

My next project was my desk and office. They have become so cluttered but I could not see the surface of my desk and the paperwork was in constant danger of becoming an avalanche. The rest of the room had little piles of paper, books and other assorted items stacked all around. It was a daunting task but once I started sorting through it all it became a cathartic exercise. I realized I was holding onto things in my life that had no meaning for me anymore. I had inherited my father's obsessive need to keep every cable, key, paper and miscellaneous bits just in case I might need them one day. I started with three piles, one things to keep, one things to throw away and one to give away or donate. As I worked through the room I noticed the pile of things to keep was miniscule in comparison to the other two. The other two piles were like symbols of the anxieties and pressures of life that are no longer needed to carry with me. It took me a couple of days but I sorted through reams of paperwork and piles of bits and doodads and finally my desktop was clean, my paperwork was filed, and my anxieties were greatly diminished.

I have continued this process of cleaning and reducing the clutter throughout the rest of my home. It is like symbolically ridding myself of everything that was holding me back and down. And even though I've had power, water, phone, and cable restored since Friday, I have still continued to purge all with all the clutter from my life and home.

It amazes me how much stuff I have managed collect and hang onto over the years that really has no meaning or purpose to me. I am making a point from now and into the future to only have sings with purpose and meaning in my home. Mies van der Rohe a famous architect once said "Have nothing in your home that is not useful or beautiful" or something like that. That is the ideal way to live. It is not just stuff it is weight upon your soul and psyche. What I mean is when you have so much around it is hard to clearly see the things that you treasure most. I'm not talking about minimalism or aestheticism, I am more referring to just living a simpler and smaller life and appreciating the things you treasure most and letting go of the rest both in your home and in your soul. Things that don't serve you anymore should be let go of and the things that do serve you should be treasured.

(added June 11) .....and of course .... Buster

Namasté

Finn