Realizing, that we don’t need MORE than we already have, to be happy, translated…
The downpour in the afternoon, washed away the heat of the summer, the rain became so loud in my ears, making it hard, for me, to focus on what’s before me, a world of my own words, and, I’d needed to, separate myself from the madness of my external environment, a great time, to tidy up my living space, as well as my mind.
Where, do I begin? Because my closet would fly wide open because of its contents being full, looks like, I’d needed to, clean it out. I’d watched my overload of clothing, calculating: even if I’d separated the clothes by the seasons, wear a different shirt every single day, I have confidence, that I will NOT repeatedly wear one shirt for three months. And yet, I’d only dressed up, wearing just those couple of outfits, plus, the ones with the comfort, and the ones for outings, I’d only needed two, three sets, so long as I still maintained my unique style, I will be able to, rule the fashion world. And even if I’d needed to wear the same outfit for this or for that, I’ll be comfortable. Every now and then, as I’d flipped out an article of clothing I’d forgotten I had, I’d had that feeling of déjà vu, felt shocked, “Wow, I have this one!”
With no keen organization housekeeping skills, I’d been long time troubled by picking things up, I’d no longer enjoyed shopping to get new items now, and I’m confident, that I can, separate the needs from the wants, but, I’d found reasons and occasions from time to time, to “reward” myself every now and then. And, through the years, the accumulations were, shocking, it’d, forced me to reexamine, what, do I want?
Awhile ago, a survey showed, that people from ages twenty to forty-five have an average of seventy-five shirts, and, of these, there were, fifteen that weren’t worn regularly. And, there were, over fifty-percent of the surveyed that showed, that in the recent two months, they’d had instances where they’d “bumped into” clothes they’d not worn a long time. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, holy, there are, a lot like me, we’d, fallen into the traps of overspending, became, slaves to our materials now.
In the past, because of work, I’d needed to live away from home for long time, and because there’s only limited packing space, I’d only needed to take what I’d needed immediately, leaving the rest at home. And, after a long time when I’d returned back home, and found out, “oh, not having these items, I’m still living fine.” Picking them all up, although the memories all came flying back, but, there’s just, no need for them, in my life again.
In Japan, there’s the trend of a simplified life, in a living space, there’s a desk, a set of quilt, with the daily used items on the desks, with no more than ten articles of clothing inside the closets, inside the petite, cramped in bathrooms, there’s not an assortment of bottles or jars……… “no longer need to spend time on sorting through or buying things, is the equivalency of having more time to hang with friends, or to travel.” No longer defining ourselves based off of the things we owned, and, transferring the time to what we hold dear, each other, life became, even more colorful, I guess, this, is what’s meant by, “less is more”.
Not lacking in needs now, I was reminded of a documentary, where an elderly woman who recycled the materials in the rural region of impoverished Paraguay, mumbling, “I’d not needed anything”; she’d watched the kids played on happily, on the musical instruments made from the recycled materials, like she’d already, had everything. Then, what, would be your, and mine, ideal ways of life?
So, in this day and age, we’re still, trapped by how much we want to have, instead of what we needed, because we only buy what we needed, we’d have, a whole lot LESS junk lying around our houses, and, our lives would be spent, more effectively, focusing, on things that matters most, instead of the dollar, or buying ourselves more clothes, bigger houses, better cars, along with all-you-can-name-it materials…