Space in London is in short supply, despite how big this place is and how big it might feel, there are more than a few people who fit into this big city, and because of this we all must learn to share what space we have. On the tube, on the streets, and even in our small living spaces there are infinite compromises to be made in life in such a large expanse. Over my past months here I’ve learned a lot from the constraints of my new life, and have sought to live in a far simpler way than I had previously had in Texas. It was no small change, but it has been a change that has yielded much in my thoughts on life from here forward and how I want to arrange myself and the things in my life. Were it not for my life in America I think everything here would feel totally normal, but years of programming a certain “way of life” makes what would otherwise feel adequate have the appearance of being small and constrained. Yes, I can seldom cook breakfast without having the mess spill over into my living room, and yes I have to wash my dishes by hand…and now my clothes washer is broken too…but it’s amazing how once we accept a new simple reality for ourselves the freedom we might find.
Moving over to London, I ridded myself of 10 years of accumulation, and took what only seemed appropriate for the months I planned to be here. That process alone exposes a lot, and begs much about why we have so much and why we feel certain things have value, necessity, and importance in our lives. Until recently I never had felt like I had too much, I always felt like I had just enough, but maybe never paused to realize that “just enough” had been growing little by little year over year. While my taste is pretty simple, and while much of what I spend I can rationalize, I am coming to feel that much of the effort I have made over the years to make life more simple has manifested itself via an increase in the amount of complexity (stuff, clutter, etc) in my life.
Now things aren’t bad, or they don’t have to be, but I think we so easily take for granted the level of luxury that is common place amongst us. I know that my generation is learning, or at least trying to become more thoughtful, appreciative, and aware but I feel despite all the slogans we’ve invented we’ve got miles to go and we’re all (myself included, and perhaps especially) detached from the realities of what keeping it simple means. If we live only in a hypothetical understanding of anything, whether it be simplicity or some other broad topic, we do not live in understanding of it at all.
Groceries have become the single most regular reminder of the excesses in my life. Any time I go to the store in London, I must carry home all that I purchase. Pretty much no matter where I shop I am at least a 400M walk to my door, plus the 57 stairs to get to my flat. I can’t help but think the fact that I’m purchasing loads of food that I struggle to carry might communicate something about the way my life is set up…again, not saying it’s wrong, just important for me to be aware of. And it can (if you allow it) trigger some thought provoking lines of questioning. What’s been interesting is that despite the royal pain that it is to go to the store every other day, and lug seemingly small loads of food and daily goods back to my flat, there is much satisfaction I’m finding in having less each day, and the flexibility it provides to live a life seeking my daily bread, in this case, both literally and figuratively. I heard someone once say that things by their nature are constraining not liberating, and the more we have the more we have to manage, and the more distracted we become from the bigger pursuits of our time…it couldn’t be more true.
Look, I know it might be a bit of a stretch…and yes I buy less because I don’t have a car or a “normal sized” fridge…and yes going to the store once a week is easier and smarter than once a day…BUT I’m just considering what I’ve compromised at the sake of convenience over the past years.
Despite my best efforts to simplify, I’ve found my solution is to do that with “more”, it's a pattern I’m working to break in my life mainly because I don’t really know what more I need. There are certainly things I want but I’m trying so desperately to want the right things, and the right things aren’t things at all. A new snazzy suit or an ipad are certainly not going make me a better man, but somehow the presence of stuff provides yet another illusion of comfort in our lives. We are taught to believe that more means more fulfillment; why else would bigger houses, super sizing it, faster cars, and the whole myriad of other upsizing quests that we’re so inclined to hold such appeal? This simply isn’t true, and it's a great illusion that our world has been susceptible to for generations, and I think only now are we starting to come to grips with the implications of this way of living both in our lives and in the world as we know it.
About two months ago walking through the antique markets in Paris, I was faced with the stark reality of how much stuff we generate as people. As I popped from stall to stall, in an old antique market I started to think of how much beauty had been lost in the name of progress and how much we’ve left behind in the purpose of “advancing” . As I waded through the mounds of old trinkets and household goods, records and photographs, toys and books smelling the French cuisine through the stiff winter air, I started to think about how far gone we all are, and how our bigger and better worldview might take a toll on us all before long. All this stuff has got to go somewhere, and in a few years that same antique market will be stocked full of the relics of today.
I’m now living with probably 25% of the stuff I had back home, and I’m perfectly fine, and still in many regards teetering towards excess, which is quite odd to pen down, but I guess part of what I’m seeing for myself is the abundance of what I already have. I think often the luxuries of our lives often end up as clutter that clouds our vision towards that which really, truly matters. The more that we obtain the more distracted we become from what we’ve been endowed. Even if just temporarily, we could allow ourselves to depart from the comfort we believe that is afforded via complexity, might we find how rich we are, and how that has so little to do with what fills the vacant spaces of our homes.
When its all said and done, I’m coming to know and understand full well how abundant my life is, and it has nothing to do with stuff. And while I have much in terms of things, the abundance for which I am most thankful is the love that has blanketed my life and made me whole despite the volume of toys in my toy box. The good Lord has afforded me much, and yet the thing I’m most changed by is not that he would provide me with such luxury but rather it is simply knowing him.
Simplifying on the daily,
CP
