Many years back, I started developing a fascination with the "Voluntary Simplicity" movement. I suppose it was a bit of a reaction to the fact that my life — at the time — just felt constantly overwhelming, largely due to the complexity of everything.
Of course, I have never really managed to succeed in my quests for simplicity. The complexities of life have a sneaky way of invading our reality because this world is not created to support simplicity. In fact, it often feels like even the simplest things are designed to be complicated... like they are somehow not "good enough" unless they involve a lot of time and effort. Or money.
Ironic, I think, that you often have to "pay extra" in order to get less, or spend less time/effort.
But I digress.
While questing for simplicity, I also have hoarding tendencies in certain aspects of my life! Yes, you read that right!
My writing, for example, is one such area.
If I get an idea for a story/article/post and I think it's good enough to warrant exploring, I will jot something down on a piece of paper, or in a Notepad document on the computer, with the hopes of "coming back to it" later.
Of course, most of the time, "later" never comes.
And so, I find myself posing the question: "What good are all these snippets, if I never find the time to get around to them?"
Not much, really...
Every now and then, I visit my collected notes, and typically realize that the train of thought that generated them in the first place has long since left the station... and I can barely remember why I even thought something was interesting, in the first place!
At that point, I usually decide — after reading a few, for inspiration — that it is too complicated and overwhelming to sort through them all to get an idea that actually feels inspiring, so I go off and start from scratch.
That happened again, earlier today... but this time, I broke my old pattern and made the decision to just completely delete several folders completely!
And yes, I followed that up with "Empty recycle bin" so I couldn't have a change of heart and go back and restore them!
Interestingly enough... I feel more relieved than regretful, and — in some small way — the "burden" of existence became a little bit lighter.
It was a poignant reminder that the "stuff" that weighs us down isn't always physical or material; or even psychological trauma; sometimes it's just piles of what I call "unrealized potential" that ends up weighing us down.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2023-07-06 17:58 PDT
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