I move towards a life less cluttered. Less cluttered with stuff. Less cluttered with distractions. In this day and age it is a difficult thing to do. I’ve eschewed a smart phone in favor or a dumb one – even though all the cell companies tell me they’ll give me one for free, that it will be a minimal extra charge per month for the plethora of additional capabilities I will have at my fingertips. Those same capabilities which will keep me distracted and entertained during times of boredom, and eventually during the non-bored times as well. Dinners with family, conversations with friends, quiet moments alone – all disrupted so I can check my email, google that thing I can’t remember, show everybody the latest and greatest cat video I’ve seen in the last three hours.
So I choose the dumber option, which is still more than happy to beep and buzz far too often as it is. I learn to turn it off – to silence the noise. I check it when when it is convenient for me. People don’t understand – and god knows I’m far from adept at it yet – but I’m working on it.
We choose not to have television service at the house, and when our room mate moves out we will cancel the internet as well. My truck is gone and I drag my feet on replacing it. I try to rein in those consumptive desires that the current society esteems so highly. I only buy the things I think I need, and I get rid of them when they offer less than I need of them; when they stop adding to my life and start subtracting from it.
It does not happen all at once – it is a process like any other. Slow and clumsy at first – but it builds as you build within yourself the environment which fosters the end result you want to achieve. Like taking all the crap food out of our diet – at first we crave that which is gone – but eventually the cravings subside and we are left feeling somehow more whole afterword. Sometimes the things we do just feel ‘right’. A less cluttered life gives me that feeling.
What is it that makes you feel right?
