Seeking Simplicity

I have just finished reading The Pelee Project, the account of a Toronto woman's search for sanity and personal peace after being in a serious car accident and recognizing her busy life was out of control. She decides to take a 3-month winter sabbatical on Pelee Island, a place she discovers while on vacation. Busy in the summer, it is permanent home to only about 200 people the rest of the year.

At the end of the book, the author, Jane Christmas, comments on what she has learned about simplicity. She writes:

Simplicity does not come in a neat little box. It means more than cutting back on material possessions... or slowing down. Simplicity... comes from within. 

Yes, paring down material possessions is part of the game - but only if you feel unnecessarily burdened by them...

Hmmm. Looking around, I see lots of "stuff," some of it useful, some of it sentimental.

Shaking his head, Terry often comments that when he was 20, all his possessions fit in the back seat of his Datsun! (I recognize that you have to be at least 25 to know what a Datsun is!) How did we accumulate so much?!

Yes, we do have a lot of stuff - much of it accumulated over the past 30 years. At times I admit that we have "too much" - but we still use a lot of it. What should we get rid of?!

Jane Christmas's words - "if you feel unnecessarily burdened by them" - is, I think, the key...

As I think about paring down possessions yet again (We are always accumulating more!)... that is the question I plan to ask myself: "What books, clothes, furniture, etc.... burden me in this room, this closet?"

Hopefully I'll have the courage to take it from there!