John Lennon famously said:
”Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”
Sometimes when I see that quote I think about how there always seems to be too many things that need to be done before I can get anything done.
Sound like a contradiction?
Whether it's funny or not, I do find myself wondering why so many people (including myself) identify with that quote, and with the same sense that there's never enough time to get things done.
Why is it that we seem unable to consciously move to a place where we actually have less on our plates, so that the amount of stuff we need to get done is somewhat in balance with the amount of time and energy we have to give to it?
Some years ago, I got pretty interested in the ”Voluntary Simplicity” movement, but somehow my efforts to simplify my life we're impressively derailed by "reality" along with a number of people around me who were absolutely dedicated to the pursuit of more, rather than less, and considered my ruminations somewhere close to treachery and treason.
Which — in turn — led me to really recognize the degree to which our culture is centered around more, while relegating the entire notion of voluntarily wanting less and the idea of simplicity by choice to the ranks of heinous fringe-dwelling that bordered on anti-patriotic.
I'm actually sort of boring myself here, because this is a topic I talk about quite often, but it has always felt like any attempts I have made to actively pursue it ends up feeling like there's a very strong force pushing back against me. But hey, it's my blog, and sometimes I get to repeat myself!
Anyway, part of our goal/ambition for 2022 is to continue with the process of selling and getting rid of an awful lot of stuff in our lives. It sometimes feels almost inevitable that we somehow accumulate things... for us, part of the accumulation process was caused by both sets of parents passing away, and us ending up with lots of "stuff and boxes" at a point in our lives when we absolutely had no time to deal with them... so they were just stored away in closets to "deal with, later."
I find myself pondering whether we could have dealt with them sooner, and I bump up against one of the inevitabilities that face a lot of households here in the USA: Being in a financial position where we can ill afford to spend a lot of time sorting boxes when that time could be used for "income producing activities."
The cost to simple be alive and stay afloat is such that it requires all our attention... and thereby "gets in the way" of the alternative path to a simpler life.
Unless, of course, you just drop everything on the ground and walk away. But we are not ready for that drastic a measure!
But that's the real challenge: So many people live lives that allow them to "barely move," as a result of which lots and lots of things build up into a backlog of "to do later's" that feel overwhelming to even get to. Meanwhile, the process of stay afloat somehow keeps feeding the Machine of More.
The only way to change it seems to be... through sheer determination.
Trying to find some of that, at the moment!
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your day!
How about YOU? Is your life fairly "simple?" Or does it feel "overfilled?" Regardless, is your lifestyle working out the way you want it to? Have you ever heard of the "Voluntary Simplicity" movement? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220112 14:58 PST
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