simplify.

I'm sure I've posted this link before, but for awhile, this manifesto was my roadmap for learning to live with less. In the past year or so, I have fallen away from this a bit. But as I prepare to uproot myself once again and move on to another place, it seems prudent to start to review these things once more.

As much as I dream of a simple life, the truth is that there is still plenty of clutter awaiting my return back home. And as long as it is there, even though I may not be carrying it around with me physically, it is still a heavy weight on my mind. The best I can do right now is simplify what I have with me, both tangible and intangible, and work towards that goal as much as possible here. The more comfortable I get with simplicity when I'm on the road, the easier I find it is to declutter my life when I return home, because I become uncomfortable with the state of things there and need to declutter as a way of correcting the balance. When I "run out of steam", it is because I have met myself in the middle-ground between the simplicity I was living and the cluttered state of my room back home. That is why I can never seem to get it over and done with: I tarry too much and end up reaching a feeling of comfort before I overcome the clutter monster.

Does that sound a little too zen for you? Don't forget about the desert fathers - they sought simplified lives too, and they were intense Christians.

Anyway, I've got to get ready for bed and get some reading in before I can go to sleep. There's plenty of pages to go before I can turn in all my library books, and just a few weeks more before that day comes. This weekend, the simplifying begins again.