Simplifying Life

Aril

Hello virtual friends:j
Many more awe inspiring contributions made in my absence...thank you so much. Here and the live on £4000 a year thread on the DFW board are quite my favourite places to be on MSE!!
All well here....no sorting or decluttering as had a day out instead with my friend. She's had a rough trot lately but is one of those people who just rolls up her sleeves and gets on with it. Not a groaner moaner. She and I had a girls' day out in Worthing and had a fab time. Very little spent [at most £30 between us] and that includes parking and a wicked lunch. We found a greasy spoon cafe that did most lovely homecooked fare...nothing fancy but simple cooking at its best. Not had chips like that in a long time:D We each treated ourselves to a pendant for £2.50 but other than that spent the time nosing around the charity shops/cheapie shops as the budget for both of us was tight. On the way home though we both felt we'd had a real treat even though what we'd done was nothing fancy. I love looking at new things [or second hand things in this case] without needing the urge to buy them and we had such a laugh at the orange/mustard/poo brown rail of "vintage" 1970s clothes in one of the charity shops. I remember my Dad wearing collars like that...you could have given a Boeing 747 a run for its money with some of those:D Afterwards we had a cuppa with her OH...he's a lovely chap and absolutely fascinates me. He can make anything it seems out of anything...yesterday he showed me his backbrush....a large pinecone stuck to a stick....he's latest picture....a chamois leather that he's dyed with tea and then drawn a map on and put it a frame from Oxfam....and a table he's half way through making for which the base will be a tree stump. We hatched a plan together to take his stove to the woods and have bacon sarnies one evening when it's lighter and warmer...we all agreed that it doesn't take a lot to have a good time does it?
Today's quote reminds me that although my life may not seem outwardly racy and often quite ordinary I generally enjoy it and am grateful for all the little opportunities and the people it brings me into contact with who give me a new perspective and way of looking at things:
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Teilhard de Chardin
Aril

ceridwen

Yep - I've read Linda cockburn's book myself - and recommend it as a good read.

Quick link from my googling on this so far:

www.lintrezza.com/links.html

Right - now back off to read THE most relevant one in my personal opinion - on overpopulation. And - by then - I'll probably have to take a "chill pill" (aka some soothing music) to calm back down - as over-population is definitely a subject that can cause the ceridwen temper to start rising visibly.

ceridwen

Aril

Like the sound of your friends - can I adopt them?

Another good quote - and very much one of my favourites. Its one of the ones I remind myself of regularly - closely followed by giving myself a lecture on "we all make literally every single mistake under the sun sometime - if not in this life, then we have done in a previous one". Must go off and remind myself of that right now ..thinking of my hint of a rant on overpopulation in my previous post (I too have probably made a decision some time - taking only my own personal wishes into account - with longterm bad implications for everyone else.....kick self...shut up...kick self....try and understand why.....).

I guess I've just summed up my personal philosophy there....I personally believe in reincarnation.....hence I try - try being very much the operative word sometimes! - to look at people and think:
- I too will have abused power sometime
- I too will have had a lot of money and kept it all for myself sometime
- I too will have taken part in wars sometime
- I too will have...... (fill in gap as applicable)

It doesnt always work - I still lose the ceridwen temper sometimes at other peoples actions and it sometimes takes a while before I remind myself that "I too have almost certainly done THAT sometime".

Move_To_Portugal

Hi everyone

Not sure if this blog has been posted on this thread but it has some great posts on it about simple living and living in the depression.

Simplicity in Kansas

mtp

Rowan9

Good morning everyone and thanks for the links and book suggestions.
Just a thought Ceridwen - I hope you think kind thoughts about yourself after you go through things you may have done. It is my belief (finally) that we are not kind enough to ourselves. In order to nurture others, you must feel nurtured by yourself. This is different to selfish (eg shutting self in bathroom with lighted candles and scented bath while kids are running riot lol) and I'm still coming to terms with it. It's one of the main lessons I've learned/ am learning from LovingKindness, the book by Sharon Salzberg which I've mentioned before.
I will look out some more of her wise words later this morning. A friend gave me a loan of her book a few weeks ago but I have bought my own one since it speaks to me so much at this time in my life. I maybe said before that i owned it a few years ago but sold it. I don't think the time was right then for me to hear the words in the book.
Leaving with a quote from my peace journal:
May peace prevail on Earth

Nice little mantra/ thought and a good one to think when temper goes whoooosh (mine did in the night - dreamt that OH had given SS my car to learn to drive with and he and mate went out in it and trashed the gears and covered it with stickers . I was blimmin mad when i woke and had to think may peace prevail on earth quite a few times before i could sleep!)
w

ceridwen

Thanks for that wmf - well, yes, I do think kind thoughts about myself - sometimes! The little "glow" if I can see I've genuinely helped out someone - and I think "yep - I can be a nice person if I try you know". And I remind myself of life mistakes I havent made/no longer make. I hope I've learnt one or two things - so do feel pleased with myself about things I feel I have got right. I dont run on self-criticism ALL the time! I can get plenty of that from other people! I do see the point about nurturing oneself before one can nurture others - and do follow that one.

Been thinking about groatiequeens latest post - tiny simplicity idea for handbag - and, yep, well...."many a mickle makes a muckle" in how one leads ones life as well as in financial terms. The things one would change if one had ones life again are sometimes in terms of the material possessions (as well as "life experiences"). If we started out again most of us would have far fewer possessions than we currently have. With the best will in the world we keep a lot of things we wouldnt buy now in the first place. Duplication of possessions is a frequent one - my teensy thought for the day looking at some totally plain white large bowls I have in my kitchen being that I wouldnt buy dinnerplates now (duplication of possessions - as I usually use these bowls for my dinner now - and they are multi-purpose, unlike the dinnerplates). Got those bowls at a time when I was feeling very struck by the idea of having all ones food requirements for the day in one bowl - as in Buddhist monks collecting the days food in a bowl (until my appetite came in and I realised that it tends to equal more like 3 large bowls worth of food per day - lol). Cant quite bring myself to get rid of the dinnerplates yet - thinking of more conventionally-minded guests. Seating in my home as well - I have a sofa (and it comes in handy for more arthritic-type visitors) - but would I have bought it in the first place now or got large flat cushions instead (dual purpose - seating and spare bed and easy for me to move as required).

ceridwen

An extract from a website another poster drew our attention to:

http://positivepause.com/en/

mary43

originally posted by Charis
I followed the leads in the last two posts and eventually found this incredible website full of art which really brings home the message of how western society is locked into conspicuous consumption.

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php

Brilliant site Charis...............a good reminder of just what is going on with the world.

Aril - brilliant post as always. Glad you had a good time in Worthing.........my son lives there and I always remember my first visit, staying at the house with him and the other six students he shared with who made me feel so welcome and not like a ''mum' at all. The charity shops were brilliant.........had to get a shopping trolley to bring it all home.............one of my favourite pastimes when I'm there (not often enough sadly) is to just sit on a rock and look at the sea. My son used to spend his evenings skateboarding along the sea front and felt it put life into perspective for him.

wmf - wise words. I always feel much better about myself if I've done something for someone else..........makes me wonder sometimes if I do things like that simply to make myself feel better .............or does it really matter?

ceridwen - lovely link and a beautiful way to remind us that life isn't as bad as it appears to be.

Well, no more de-cluttering for me today..............I know I'm missing one of my 27/9 days but to be honest I'm worn out what with sorting out the dresser and decluttering from that, plus the other stuff I've sorted that I gave away yesterday. I did wrap up my sons birthday presents though........his birthdays not till April but with all the other stuff in the spare room ready for birthdays I didn't want his lot to get buried underneath them all. Boxed up mementos of my Dad for him with a little list of what they are and what they meant to Dad. Now need to finish Mums day card I've made for Mum.......not sure whether it needs something added or not so have to get my head round that.
Just turned to look at my other desk and realised it is in need of a bit of a 'tidy' to say the least.............- must make myself small list.
Busy week this week with meetings and training courses so shan't get so much done - best make the most of what time I've got today.

boredofbeingathome

Rabbit wrote: »

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Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway - Susan Jeffers.
One of my all time favourites. Ellidee put me onto this thread and it is very inspirational, thankyou.
I have to say i have been thinking about the tv for a while. Our sky+ box broke and it was fixed a few days later, we used a little portable with just 4 channels on it. I enjoyed so much more than having the choice, no one got up tight about missing things and it was far less intrusive than the large telly blaring 24/7. I was also watching Ashes to Ashes, it showed a clip of the BBC shutting down at night and the same with ITV, it would be so much easier.

mary43

It does seem now that we have far more choice of tv programmes.........far more than we can deal with. Not only that, we're constantly being told we can view what we've missed over and over again.
I was quite happy with four channels, then came channel 5 with its bleak reception and then a friend bought us a freeview box the other christmas..........yet more choices we could have lived without.
I can see why it's on 24 hours.............for the benefit of the shift workers and no doubt there are many people living alone who see the tv as a subsitute for company, particularly the elderly or housebound but the quality of programmes lately leaves a lot to be desired. There are a few programmes I like to see but could easily live without bothering.
We have the radio on during the day............tv doesn't get switched on until around 7.30pm. I can't stand it if I visit someone, the tv's on and whats worse...........they leave it on while I'm there ! At least if someone calls to see me I have the courtesy to turn the radio off.
It does seem that once these things are switched on, they stay on