I didn’t post yesterday. Or the two days before that, either. Which is kind of a record for me, at least lately.

I mean, it’s not a record I’m particularly proud of or anything. I’m just saying it’s a record.

Anyway, the reason that I haven’t posted is because I’ve been extremely busy ruining the manicure that I got last week.

Also I’ve been busy filling my house with piles and piles of garbage bags that are filled with piles and piles of stuff.

But maybe I should clarify a bit…

See, I have this habit of filling up my space – however large or small that space might be – with stuff.

You too?

Yeah. A lot of us do that.

Anyway, I decided that this would be the year I would deal with all the stuff that I’ve been accumulating since the beginning of time.

Not since the beginning of literal time, of course. But since a long, long time.

The thing is, it’s just really easy to fill up your space and your days and your time. Another box delivered to your front porch is literally a click away. Time fills up with errands and work and screens and who can deny that it’s all fun and that there isn’t joy in opening that box of new stuff?

But there can be too much, even of good things.

Wordsworth knew this, wrote this too way back in 1802:

The World Is Too Much With Us

(William Wordsworth, 1770-1850)

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.—Great God!  I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.” (~Lao Tzu)

There really can be too much, even of good things.

Too much of screens and boxes and stuff.

Which is why I’m spending this year, or at least this part of this year, simplifying.

I’m not saying that the process is for everyone. But I do think that even a bit of sorting and thinking – really thinking – about what we’re hanging on to and why we’re hanging on to it might be a good thing to think about doing.

Of course, if I were you, I wouldn’t get a manicure the week before you start.

~xo,
LuAnne

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