The Simple Things of Comfort and Joy

In this season of goodness and light, comfort and joy and peace on earth goodwill toward men, I thought it might be good to write about living simply.
I have a friend who is skipping Christmas this year. Mainly because she has some personal therapeutic reason for doing so but also as a small rebellion to what our society has done to this holiday season.

To many it seems to have become only secular. An excuse to buy, buy, buy.
Which seems to begin LONG before Black Friday. I saw Christmas sales way before Halloween this year. I know the economy is hurting but Sheesh!
How many TV’s, blueray players, Ipods, I phones and whatever else can you have?
I find it ironic that just as Oprah tells all of us to live simply, cut back and be content with what we have, she owns at least five homes and in her magazine talks about her favorite things which usually are way beyond my pocketbook! How much is enough?
In this time of so much unemployment, homes being foreclosed and people in debt up to their eyeballs, what is living simply?
I think it begins with the spirit. If your soul is empty and wanting, we will want to fill it up. And we usually start with what we think are the easier quick fix ways. Like food, drugs, alcohol, and things.
I have been guilty of this. I tried to fill the hole within my soul with alcohol, didn’t work, sex: NADA. Food: well, that’s where comfort food got it’s definition but when you end up overweight with diabetes and heart problems; you need to look deeper.
Shopping is a very hollow way to find the answers. It lasts about five seconds once you walk in your front door. And then you need another fix.

I have seen it in children who can’t entertain themselves for five minutes without a Gameboy, Wii or movie to do it for them. When was the last time someone read them a book? Or took them on a nature walk in the forest where they could exam a squirrel’s skull, a robin’s nest or see who can find the most beautiful rock?

As far as we adults, what does living simply mean to you? Do you find yourself often bored, restless or just grumpy? Needing to fill that hole with “something”?

I recently went on a clean out spree. I cleaned out closets (anything I hadn’t used or worn in a year went!) I had held onto hundreds of books because I LOVE them. I so cherish holding a hardback book in my hands, smelling the pages, soaking up the graceful phrases and elegant words. But I realized I was being selfish. While these books were hugging my many bookcases, someone could actually be reading them! So I boxed them up and dropped them off at the public library to do with as they would.
After my big clean out, I felt cleansed. FREE. And I don’t intend to fill it up again with more stuff. Believe me, I am not living like a monk. I still have plenty of stuff. But I don’t feel as tied to it or owned by it all as I did before.

I have many sentimental keepsakes and things I cherish. Like my Red Willow china and my wooden St. Nick collections I also still have my favorite books that I love to read over and over. But I no longer feel any need to run out and buy something. I didn’t do Black Friday and in fact, I did a very small amount of shopping this holiday season. I bought my grandchildren books, which I hope they will enjoy having me read to them.
The rest I purchased from my easy chair via on line catalogs.

Maybe living simply is something that comes with age. At a certain age I began to realize it wasn’t what I physically had or how I looked that was important. Just like a corny Christmas movie, I learned that what is important is what’s inside. The friendships with other women that sustain me. My husband who loves me no matter how many wrinkles I have or how gray our hair. And my daughters who are now not only my adored daughters but cherished friends. And last but not least, my golden retrievers: Selka and Gunner who spend almost every minute of every day within a pat on the head or a stroke of their fur.

So many things bring comfort and joy to my life. Some are physical. A mocha latte’ is so much better enjoyed with a friend or a good movie watched with my husband, daughter or a soft golden body in my lap. But the most important is the quiet contentment as I look up at the full or crescent moon and think of my mom, who always called me to look out my window at it’s splendor. Or when I meditate to beautiful music and feel the presence of my Higher Power whose abiding unconditional love and acceptance gives me not only the courage to live simply but also the joy.