“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he had imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
–Henry David Thoreau – Walden, or Life in the Woods
To simplify, to live with less, to live without the need of so many material things…That is my dream
I am on a mission today to simplify even more. Getting rid of all the extra stuff (aka shit I don’t need) till my house stops messing itself up. Being Inside cleaning my STUFF on a beautiful day, puts me in a fowl sort of mood.
Perfectly ridiculous!!
That photo is not from yesterday but this gives you a good idea of what my house looked like at the end of the day yesterday.
Aha Moment: A little over a year ago, there was this moment in time, a moment where my heart changed about stuff & I became overwhelmed with the need to simplify, I wanted to be able to snap my fingers in that very moment and make all of the extra stuff GO AWAY!! Since that day, I have been working on changing my buying habits and surroundings so that they will begin to match my heart. Yesterday was a shitty day here anyhow (we lost our sweet dog and digging the hole to bury him nearly broke my heart) and I was in a fowl mood. Who wants to be inside cleaning on a beautiful summer day..NOT ME!! I was aggravated that after all this time, we still have soooooo much stuff. My heart has changed but my habits and what I have been programed to do have not fully changed and my house shows that sometimes.
I was sitting in my living room this morning with my tea and looking around. While the rest of the house is still in need of simplifying (and some) This room, though only one is after what seems like forever, finally beginning to represent who we truly want to be. I wish I could find a photo of this room a couple of years ago, complete with Tv and plastic toys galore. It’s not happening as fast as I would like but then again most good things don’t happen fast. They happen over time, they happen slowly and they happen when our hearts have become concrete in that place and goals and dreams are able to meet us there.
The Hungarian Gypsy complained that in her new way of life, indoors, all of her time was taken up in cleaning the property, whereas formerly there had been had been none of that work, as her floor was the earth, and her bed covers were leafy boughs and piled-up leaves and grasses. Being always indoors she had lost contact with the earth. She bewailed that she had become so bad tempered as a result of all that housework that her husband, children, dog and horse had all run away from her, back to the countryside, and that she would be doing likewise herself, very soon, as quickly as she was able to sell all of her possessions!
-Traveler’s Joy
Here’s to making our space and our habits represent our hearts,
~Barefoot Mama
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