Simplicity
“In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other more secret, moveable and frightening honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closed the moment you begin your plans.
What you can plan is too small for you to live.”~David Whyte
The predawn hours hold magic. In the early morning, before the alarm sounds, or the phone rings, or the emails begin, or anyone asks for anything, the earth is calm and serene. It’s the time of day during which it seems as if the world doesn’t need or expect too much from us. We don’t have to travel anywhere to experience this insight. An opportunity is there just before we open our eyes to the beginning of each and every new day.
As these past months have limited our freedom to wander outside of our physical spaces, it has permitted us the time and space to investigate our internal terrain. While we’ve been busy contemplating all the things we find ourselves unable to do, we’ve also been challenged to escape the opinions and theories and scarcity and attempt to find stillness in the storm. We’ve been experiencing uncertainty. And uncertainty breeds fear. And fear is contagious.
By simplifying our spaces - physically and emotionally - we are better equipped to adapt to our ever-changing climate and control what we can.
Now, more than ever, simplicity is a necessity. Calm, clarity, and the space for being is the ultimate prize.
When we implement the laws of simplicity into our spaces, we create a pathway for abundance to enter and grow. When we cling to our Stuff, we are sending a signal that we have all we need and therefore aren’t open to experiencing or encountering more. We then remain in the same space with the same Stuff. We are forgetting to pay attention to the universal laws and truths. There has to be an exchange of energy.
Many have spent these past months purging their spaces. Many have spent the weeks wondering why they haven’t. If you have, fantastic. I hope it was cleansing and cathartic and freeing. I hope it instilled a sense of calmness. I hope your newfound space is providing you with clarity, and comfort, and a new sense of freedom.
And if you haven’t, that’s ok too. It must not be your time to do that. Don’t let the feeling of not doing what everyone else seems to be doing weigh you down as much or more than your Stuff already does. It’s perfectly perfect to take baby steps into this process… one thought, one t-shirt, one too-many kitchen accessories at a time.
When you let it go, you can breathe. When you take a pause in whatever way makes sense for you, you are able to find clarity and direction.
“It’s summer, a lazy Sunday afternoon. The sunlight glistens on the water as the waves gently wash to shore. The beach stretches as far as the eye can see. A child plays in the sand. He builds a castle, and then another. As the sun moves slowly across the sky, a moat emerges and water is brought from the sea in a hundred trips.
Now the sun is low and the waves increase. “Time to go,” calls a voice from the shore.
The child laughs, watching as everything he has built is washed away. He knows he can’t take his castles with him. The joy is in the building. The music is in the song that is sung.
The goal is the journey.
All is washed back to the sea. It is as is should be. The day has ended.
The child laughs with glee, takes his father’s hand, and goes home.
Throughout our lives we build our castles, toil in the sun, make a hundred trips to the sea. “Time to go,” calls a voice from the shore. The day has ended.
May we too know we can’t take our castles with us. The joy is in the building. The music is in the song that is sung. The goal is in the journey. All is washed back to the sea.”
~ James R. Welter
Sometimes I am at the beach before dawn. Some mornings, while I wait for the sun to rise to greet me, the moon is glowing like a radiant beacon, confident and unwavering, reminding me how small I am and how vast the Universe is. In the predawn hours my mind is free and uncluttered. I want to capture these moments and bottle them up and put them in my pocket to be able to pour over myself later when I’ve allowed the chaos and restlessness back in.
Call it whatever you want, Spirit, Universe, God, Life, Nature, it is there for you, constant and steady. It wants to wrap you in simplicity and give you space to breathe. It wants to guide you along your path and provide you with a sense of peace. It doesn’t want you to experience life under the weight of All. Your. Stuff.
It wants to remind us that we won’t be able to take our Stuff with us. It wants us to own and acknowledge our priorities and then determine if the Stuff we are storing is contributing to or hindering our journey.
It wants us to remember that the castles we build are temporary. The Stuff we acquire can sometimes cover, disguise, and hide the path towards our purpose. Sometimes our Stuff has been there so long we don’t even see it anymore. We don’t see that it’s become a roadblock for finer things - people, experiences, creativity, growth - to enter and become a part of our story. We hang on to so much Stuff for Someday or Something or Sometime that we didn’t notice our Stuff was standing in the way of more fulfilling and beautiful experiences in the here and now.
Make peace with your Stuff. If you love it and use it and it makes you happy, by all means, cherish it and appreciate it. If it’s taking up space and not prompting you to dwell in the life you are meant for, then perhaps it’s time to consider why you still have it.
Remember, we’re just floating in space and everything is temporary.
So whether you’re a morning person or not, I hope you are able to watch a sunrise or two, listen to the birds sing their songs, and take a pause to connect with Nature. I hope you are able to take a few moments in the early morning to center yourself while establishing the backdrop for your day. Remember to take a pause to just be still before you give yourself away.
The most beautiful moments are when you expect nothing and find everything.
May we too know we can’t take our castles with us. The joy is in the building. The music is in the song that is sung. The goal is in the journey.
Trust in the power of simplicity.