1st
Living The Untangled Life
For my whole life I can honestly say that I have always wanted to live simply. I think simply and straight forward. There is a beauty in simplicity. It’s clean cut, it’s easily understood, yet, it’s hard to do in this day.
My biggest struggle is that I am that of a collector. For some reason if I get into something I get so obsessed that I must find every accessory that goes with that thing or activity. Even my closet, I can’t own just one pearl snap button up western shirt, I have to own 20. In those areas I just like options, even if I rarely take advantage of the option.
Well, I’m going to slowly try to start living simply…again. Now that I have moved across the country and was forced to throw away a lot of stuff due to lack of space in my car I believe this idea has a better chance of working out. It all started with furniture.
Yesterday I found a futon frame on the corner for free and I lugged it up to the apartment. I then scanned craigslist for a free futon mattress and found one a couple blocks away. It seemed to be fate. The frame is made of wood and a couple of the bars are snapped, but that’s an easy repair. Last night I was sleeping on it and it was fine but I would like to make it more solid. I’m going to buy plywood to but across the planks so it becomes a flat bass for the mattress to rest. Thinking about that I went online and looked up people’s advice on making futons comfortable. This led me to a site about the Japanese and their beds and their theory on firm beds rather than cushion filled mattresses. For some reason I have always wanted to sleep like that. I had always read that it is better for your back and often times when I go home to Virginia I find myself asleep on our wood floors with a pillow.
I don’t know why it all of a sudden led me to thinking about simplicity but it was probably all the Japanese information I was reading. I think it comes from my long time dream of wanting to live in the hills of Japan and study under an old samouri master. Learning about the simplicity of living and of human nature. Soaking in one lesson a day until it reaches maximum clarity. That just seems like a great time to me and maybe one day I’ll be able to do it, but who knows.
As for now, I need to figure out how else to simplify my life. Living here and now, in the moment will probably be a good constant to have. I believe this is what keeps us aware of our surroundings.
More thoughts on this as I continue my research in the way of the simple.
