Pages

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Simple Life


...photographed as I was Facebooking on my Blackberry during the drive from Iowa back to St. Paul, Minnesota. In the heart of Harmony, Minnesota.

Ahhh, the irony.

The older Thomas gets...the more I find myself wanting to simplify. Simplify activities, thoughts, things...simplify it all.

Over the past few weeks, I've found myself:
  • Updating my Google Reader, deleting links that I normally skim but not read through.
  • Clearing out clutter in our bedroom, living room and the Wee Ski's room
  • Incredibly grateful to Jonathan for cleaning out a good portion of my office when I was in Iowa - what a surprise gift!
  • Culling old magazines and catalogs - recycling anything that isn't within a month of being current
  • Filling several donation boxes with clothes and items to give away.

When I was clearing out my Reader from the past few days, I came across this fantastically simple post from Simple Mom: The Clutter You Can't See. Each of her example areas are ones that jump out at me personally -- relationship clutter, time clutter, body clutter, and mind clutter.

I can see myself holding onto things - be it emotional or physical. On the emotional side - one of my biggest weaknesses is playing things over and over in my mind - which usually intensifies the emotions that I feel around it, instead of lessening them. And it stalls any true action in resolving the challenge instead of just mulling on it over...and over...and over.

It's a good challenge to truly physically clear things out, and emotionally clear things up.

I just love this quote: when you get rid of clutter, you're making room for things you truly love.

We have a packed week ahead - Relay For Life, another wedding, work, photography, and some downtime for Jonathan, Thomas and me to reconnect after being apart for several days.

Searching for those simple moments that bring life's meaning -- like this, below.

My 95-year-old Grandpa Mauss...holding his first great-grandson. Laughing and squealing and playing.

Time you cannot get back once it's passed.


Looking forward more moments like this. :)

2 comments:

KCina said...

Good Tuesday morning!!! ;-)

What a wonderful photo of Grandpa Mauss & Mr. Thomas!

YEAH Jonathan for helping cleaning out a portion of your office...I would let Victor do that, but I'd end up with NOTHING left...it's funny how the men in our lives seem to be able to "simplify" the clutter easier than we do.

We have a huge Relay wide rummage sale this weekend...working on "clearing out" a little more stuff from our home too!

~ Kathy

Noreen said...

What a lovely post, and so true. You can always make more money, or buy more stuff, but you can never make more time. Once it's passed, it's passed. Thanks for the good reminder. And it looks like you had a wonderful time!

Link Within

Blog Widget by LinkWithin