Radical Simplicity

Yesterday I finished reading Radical Simplicity by Dan Price. It was a great little read--wonderful little sketches and good content as well. It was not a "how-to" book at all, but the chronicle of one man's experiences with VERY simple living (i.e. he lives in an 80 square foot "hobbit hole"). Unfortunately, the last chapter of the book had a very sexist comment in it that totally irked me and cast a pall on my enjoyment of the rest of the book (which was high until I read that comment). So, I'm having trouble writing about all of the good things about it, because of the bad taste that was left from one of his closing remarks!

One of the things I gained from the book was, AGAIN, to take life as it comes and to enjoy the simple things in life. I always want to speed, speed, speed. Slow down. I keep getting this message and then buzzing along and forgetting it...

Another thing from this book was in the opening section he says (paraphrasing here) that there are three really important decisions that people make that impact their ability to live a simple life:

1. Where you live.
2. Who you choose for a partner.
3. The work you do--do you love it?

The subtitle of this book was something like "creating an authentic life." This is my main focus--I want to live truly, deeply, richly. I want to make sure I am living an authentic life--a true life. I often become bogged down in details or minor stresses and keep waiting for "later" or thinking ahead (planning and/or worrying) to the future--I feel like I need to get all of the "business" out of the way and then, then, I can do "what I really want to do." Well, the time is now. I also need to be conscious of my responsibilities--I have a tendency to just take on more and more and more. During this season of my life with small children, it is OKAY to be "slow" :-) (and actually probably more valuable than anything else I can offer).

It is late and my thoughts are disjointed accordingly (this is why I shouldn't stay up late, but should get up early instead, when I am sharp and fresh!).

Edited to add something I forgot--this book also made me start to get the declutter bug again. I can feel it strike. I start casting my eyes about all the rooms looking for things to get rid of it. It is kind of funny (and can also be fun). I have too many other things on my plate right now to embark on a major decluttering mission though!