Simplify Simplify Simplify

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, this was one of the themes of our winter retreat. We talked about ways we have begun to live more simply this year and what we can do and/or take on throughout the rest of the year to continue that journey.

I began to learn about living simply when I first traveled to West Virginia to work on home repair projects with Nazareth Farm in my freshman year of college. Over the course of the following years, I reexamined my spending habits and use of resources, from asking myself the question of: "Do I really need this item of clothing?" to, more recently, reducing my meat consumption.

As a Christian woman, I feel called to simple living for a number of reasons. First and foremost because, as human beings, we are stewards of God's creation. It is our responsibility to ensure that our earth will be able to provide for our children and our children's children. Secondly, in my studies of social justice and working with the poor, I have learned that each individual's consumption habits have a direct effect on other people, especially the world's most vulnerable populations.

So, needless to say the more informed I become about issues of social injustice, the more urgently I feel a need to change things in my day to day life that will allow me to tread a little more lightly on the planet. That being said, I have quite a ways to go and there are many challenges associated with such a life style change. An intelligent friend once reminded me, after reading a book about energy consumption around the world, that in order to not leave any ecological foot print whatsoever, you would have to actually... not exist.

But one of the readings that Allison brought along helped me to think about living simply in another way. True simplicity is internal. One can have many things but live simply, and one can have very few things and not live simply. Truly living simply is more than just material possessions, it is about possessing a simple heart. Being simple in our relationships, our interactions and how we spend our time.  In that respect, I feel that I have come a long way this year.

Any of my friends from college could tell you that I ran on automatic "go" mode, constantly feeling like I needed to be doing something and feeling guilty when I was not. Even if I was sitting still, my mind was never in one place. Therefore, I rarely felt truly present in the moment I was in.

I observed today as I came home from work that I dropped my purse, keys and coat in the corner of my room that I always do and with that action, I mentally said "goodbye" to Sarah's House and "hello" to my own house and community. I changed out of my work clothes into sweats and checked my gmail account (which is not accessible at work), and then went upstairs to unpack my lunch box and ask my roommates how their days were.

It is difficult to describe the exact sensations of this course of events only that I felt consciously aware of how much I have learned to simplify my lifestyle. I find that in group conversations I actually (believe it or not) talk less because I am more focused on what the speaker is saying than what I want to say next. Today, at work, while waiting for a client to complete a job interview, I sat in the car and literally did nothing. (I repeat that I was transporting a client, which is in my job description, so it is okay) But I was not thinking about what needed to be done at the office, or social drama (not that I have any in my life anyway) or some complex life question. I just sat. It was glorious!

What I'm learning this year, and came to realize in the last couple of days is that- in the same way that living materially simple promotes ecologically sustainability, internal simplicity creates emotional sustainability.