Even Socrates, who lived a very frugal and simple life, loved to go to the market. When his students asked about this, he replied, "I love to go and see all the things I am happy without." |
JACK KORNFIELD |
After a couple of decades of practicing the "simple abundance" lifestyle, I can honestly say that I am truly happy living with just those things that are necessary. I don't know where the internet falls into the mix, but that may be the one exception. For me, having a computer hooked up to the internet is a necessity.
There are down sides to this philosophy of life, although I see it as a positive way to live.
I no longer visit the mall. There have been times in my life when the mall was emotional therapy. Spending lots of money buying things I didn't need somehow filled a void that made me somewhat depressed. Buying department store jewelry gave me the most pleasure. There is something about little sparkly things that delights the senses.
Now I get that delight from buying used jewelry to resell in my online store. It does give me joy to rummage through boxes of jewelry looking for those pieces that can find another life as a refashioned piece of jewelry. That was my way of solving that problem of overspending on way too much costume jewelry!
The practice of buying stuff we can't afford and don't need is so apparent to me in other people. For instance, one of my relatives delights in a buying frenzy, only to come home and lament the fact that "x" number of dollars were spent on that spending spree. What happens? After a day or so, she gathers up the stuff she really didn't want and returns the items. Seems like a huge hassle to me!
Funny that these thoughts have occurred to me on this day . . . Black Friday. As I was watching the news this morning, today it is all about sales and shopping . . . whipping everyone up into the frenzy of fighting your neighbors to take advantage of a sale for something you don't need.
One of the down sides of this philosophy . . . I don't really look forward to the holidays anymore, except for the real meaning of the season, which has nothing to do with shopping and spending money.
I partly blame being in the business of retail for so long. The holidays were the time we would come home from the flea market with bundles of cash from awesome holiday sales. We were so busy spending all of our time either preparing for the market or being at the market that selling became the big meaning of Christmas for way too many years. It was all about making money. At the same time, I had already adopted the lifestyle of simple abundance.
This is a rare year that my online store is closed since there is still a tree on our house compliments of Hurricane Irma. Although I tried to get some inventory together and adjust the items in my Etsy store, having most of my stuff at home just made it too difficult since we are still living with my mom.
Hopefully this Christmas season can be all about the real reason for the season for The Captain and I.
Could you be "happy without"?
