I Want To Be A Minimilist!

"I love my fate to the very core and rind." wrote Henry David Thoreau. I think Henry David Thoreau knew something few of us know. For instance take his bold statement, "Most men live lives of quiet desperation." What did he know that I need to know?
The other day I found something on the internet. I was led to it by a power greater than mine. After reading it, I remembered a book I love. I looked up and saw it sitting in my bookcase. I reached up and pulled it from the shelf, dusted it off, and poured my mind into it once again. I love this book! It's title, "Walden and other writings" by Henry David Thoreau.
If you could sum up the lessons Henry David Thoreau tried to teach, you could do so by using one word, "Simplify." He said, "Simplify the outward circumstances of your life, simplify your needs and your ambitions; learn to delight in the simple pleasures which the world of Nature affords. Scorn public opinion, refuse to accept the common definitions of success, refuse to be moved by the judgments of others."
Henry David Thoreau for those of you who are not familiar with this man was born July 12, 1817. He was a very educated man, graduating from Harvard in 1837. He was referred to as a "Young Thinker" and became best friends with another favorite writer of mine, Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1845 Thoreau decided to try an experiment for which he was most famous. He took up residency in a shack, in the woods, beside a New England pond, where he lived for two years and two months. There as he stated many times, he learned to live deliberately. While living there he wrote several inspiring works on life and the role of government in it, works that are still looked at and quoted today.
Henry David Thoreau might not have known it at the time, but I think he discovered what it was to be a minimalist.  His greatest words were, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." He went on to describe passionately, "I want to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that is not life."
After reading Thoreau's inspiring words, I decided I want to live deliberately! I too want to live deep, suck out all the marrow of life.
I told Glade the other night when he got home from work that I'd stumbled onto a new idea. When ever I express to Glade new ways of thinking, Glade knows without a doubt, pain is coming. Last night as I expressed my desires for change his eye started to twitch, and he looked pale at the thought. I could see his trepidation as he asked in hopes I wouldn't answer, "What's a minimalist?"
"It's a striking back at the growing complexity of our modern world, honey," I added the sweetness on the end in order to soften him up. I'm not sure it worked. I went on to tell him how it goes against consumerism, against the mindset that we need to buy to solve our problems, that we need more and bigger. It goes against the idea that busier is better, that more is better. All these ideas are a lie. We don't need more to be happy. We need less. Less 'is' more!
Minimalism says that what’s unnecessary is a luxury, and a waste. Why be wasteful when the unnecessary isn’t needed for happiness? When it just gets in the way of happiness, of peace? By eliminating the unnecessary, we make room for the essential, and give ourselves more breathing space. I told Glade right then, I want to simplify our lives, get rid of all the extra nothingness of space occupying junk. I told him I see peace, contentment, and greater happiness in making our lives smaller.
Glade and I are both in different respects, pack rats. Right now my study is a mess. The clutter is debilitating to my brain. It comes in, I don't know what to do with it, it grows into a pile, and the piles just grow higher. It weighs in on me and it takes up space in my mind it doesn't deserve. As I go throughout my house I see it everywhere, the clutter, the knickknacks, the paraphernalia, the this, the that, the unnecessary stuff, piles and piles of it everywhere, in every room. It's driving me nuts and I've got to find a way to get rid of it!
Today I'm going to make myself a minimalist! Here are some of the things I want to do:
Get a smaller home.
Get rid of the unnecessary.
Limit hoarding the sentimental.
Clear out clutter and reduce the amount of unnecessary possessions.
Grow a little greener and a lot less wasteful.
Eat less.
Eat healthier.
Figure out what’s necessary.
Be content with less.
Buy less.
Simplifying schedules, work, and live a less stressful life.
Create a minimalist workspace, home, computer, financial life, diet and fitness program.

I took up Yoga a few weeks ago. I love Yoga! I love anything reflective of nature, I want to live closer to her and reading all of these inspiring ideas feels good. I'm going to start getting rid of everything I don't really need and use. I said to Glade, "Say goodbye to the junk, dear!" That day I cleaned out the drawers in our night stands. Glade could not tell me of one item I removed from the drawers on his side of the bed. I couldn't get over how good it felt to walk out of my room now clutterless.
And so the parting continues, I know I'm going to be amazed at what I don't miss. This week I was so proud of myself. I had to drive down to the Apple store in the Gateway Mall and since my closet right now is bursting with clothes I never wear, I was not tempted to enter into one clothing store. For me that was nothing short of a miracle.
I think I'm going to have a party and invite the world over. Then I'm going to give them monopoly money and tell them to buy up all my junk and clutter." Do you think it would work? I want the sea of things to leave my house and roll into yours!  LOL!
Yesterday Kaedell came over and I tried to send Eden home with an old toy suitcase Des had thrown out. Kids'll take anything right, so I saw an opportunity. Kadie abruptly stopped me. "I know your tactics mother, you are not sending that home with Eden!" Well, I learned a long time ago it's easier to haul something to your kids house and then let them worry about what to do with it than actually have to dispose of it myself. it's less painful that way.  If I take my junk to one of my kids, then it's like it's not really gone, after I forget about it, who cares what they do with it! Dang, they're on to me!
So here's to minimalism and living a minimalistic lifestye! I'm going to take on this new philosophy and live it, that way, I too will love my fate to the very core and rind and when I come to die, I will know I really lived!