Take Root

"It is a process, finally, of cultivating oneself and one's relationships with others- including spiritual ones. Mainstream society consists of the exact opposite--ever briefer and more superficial encounters with ever larger quantities of goods, services and people. There is no pleasure or contact, only the giddy adrenaline fueled whirl of changing experience without substance, touch without intimacy, information without meaning, company without community." From Choosing Simplicity by Linda Pierce

All of my reading as of late (with the exception of The Tales of Beetle the Bard) has had to do with voluntary simplicity. This quote was actually at the end of the book I was reading and it struck a chord with me right away. My life has been just as it says- full of meaningless contact, the acquisition of more and more worthless goods, having a steady stream of information coming to my brain so it couldn't rest and really realize what was underneath all of this nonsense. Its too much. I've said, "Enough.". My first steps have been decluttering (I've gotten rid of bags and bags of clothes and shoes, the tv, the playstation and it's games, old paperwork, purses, even outdated foods in the cupboards) and reading books on voluntary simplicity. I've also been striving to drastically reduce my Internet usage, since this, in addition to the physical clutter of my home, is my number one 'drug'. So far, I haven't obtained more peace, but I feel like I have planted seeds. Now I must continue to water them and tend them most gently so they will sprout and set down deep roots.