What is a minimalist?
"Minimalism is a tool used to rid yourself of life's excess in favor of focusing on what's important so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom."
For the past few years now I have felt the "urge to purge." No, not to do one of those body cleansing routines where you stick a hose up your rear and flush out the toxins in your digestive tract but to just get rid of the excess baggage that I've accumulated over the past 72 years.
With little baby steps I've been making trips to the local thrift stores with my "valuables", hoping to give them a new home. I have to tell you folks, departing with my possessions, which are like friends to me, is perhaps the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. I do struggle with "letting go."
This past August I met my new friend Pat. He is a minimalist. The above picture is his Christmas decoration this year. That's his house in the background. All 500 square feet or so of it, compared to my 5,268 square feet of "ranch house". I have to say that his Christmas decorations looks just as well maybe even better than my past year's of National Lampoon Christmas decorations.
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| Christmas lighting at Casa Tipton-Kelly 2009 |
I don't think I'll ever be able to completely go "all the way" that my friend Pat has gone but I think I'm going in the right direction. I feel better already.
This is what a couple said who incorporated minimalism into their lives:
"By incorporating minimalism into our lives, we've finally been able to find lasting happiness. And let's face it: that's what we're all looking for, isn't it? We all want to be happy. Minimalist search for happiness not through things, but through life itself. Thus, it's up to you to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous in YOUR life."
Well said….well said.
