Simply live

*Artist: Nick Dewar

I've had some friends tell me recently that I need to get back on top of my blog! And I do...I really do. Sorry I've been slacking.

Anyway...I have a new goal in my day to day life I'd like to share on the blog on a regular basis; and that is to live simply.

I've felt that I needed to work on this personal mantra for some months now, but to be totally honest, it was an episode of Oprah I saw last week that really got me thinking.

Oprah had traveled to Denmark to talk to the people that we've come to known as the "happiest people in the world". She traveled there to basically find out why they are so pleased with life, and found that it's due to their simplicity. (And I'm talking about the simpilicty when it comes to the material stuff.)

She went into a few homes of various 4 or 5 person families to find out that they were living in tiny spaces compared to Americans, and owned very few things that could serve them no purpose in life...like, uh ahem...us Americans do.

They don't fill their showers with 8 choices of shampoos and soaps...they choose one and use it until it is gone. They use their living rooms as play rooms, an entertainment space, an actual "living room". They don't live having 4 separate rooms for 4 separate purposes, they make the most of what they have and use it to it's fullest possible extent.

They also sat down to talk about how being around the people you love is the most important thing in life. The women said that marriage is not something they obsess over because as long as they are with the person they love, that's all that matters. No need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a party that will go on for one night. They have what makes them happy right next to them every single day.

They take care of each other as well. If a neighbor needs help, they help them. No questions asked. No qualifying for health care, everyone deserves it. (Oh god...that's a whole other discussion) But at the end of the day, they don't have the need to have more things like we do. They simply live and enjoy their loved ones.

...I've gone off on a tangent.

I guess what I'm trying to say in a very long winded way is that I strive to be more like these people. We've grown accustomed to living extravegantly and building homes not to house our family, but to house our shit.

I know that I've posted many things on this blog that are just little material purchases, but I hope you see the difference in that I'm trying to show the art and the artists behind them.

And when you don't buy every little thing you like, the treasures you do buy become just that: a precious little treasure.

So I'm not saying to buy only the necessities in life, but rather limit your purchases to those things you absolutely love, need, and can use in multiple ways.

I'd like to make this blog into how I'm achieving this goal of mine. Show the purchases I make and how I use them.

If anything, it'll keep me on track and hopefully make me realize that I have some great things in life without needing to add more. I come home to my best friend everyday. (cheesy!)

That should be enough...

Thanks for reading my blabber.