White Orchid Melody Blog

We’ve been in Italy for nearly 3 years now! Hard to believe. It has gone by so quickly. But at the same time, our old life seems a world away.

I’ve learned so much here about slowing down and enjoying life. I don’t think I’ll be the same as I was when I go back to that “old life”. There are a few ideas I hope to bring back with me from our time here in Italy: fresh food, a pedestrian lifestyle, and a more relaxed outlook on life.

The biggest change for me here has been my idea of good food. The food here, both raw staples and cooked meals at restaurants, is simply amazing. It’s fresh. It’s local. It’s delicious. I now love vegetables that I always thought I hated. I’m willing to try many more new things now, because I haven’t experienced many fresh foods that aren’t fabulous sauteed in a little olive oil and garlic. I’ve learned how to cook with fresh ingredients, which were so intimidating before. And my standards are much higher now! I can’t just go back to the states and fall back into processed food and month-old flavorless veggies. Yuck! That’s not to say I won’t indulge in my favorite fast food occasionally. But I’m now accustomed to eating fresh and my body craves fresh. When we get back to St. Louis, I’m going to work harder to find quality local food, and hopefully next summer we’ll have our own garden again! I want to learn to can and preserve food for the winter. I want to be more self-sustaining.

The other thing that has spoiled me here is being able to walk from our house to get basic necessities–fresh fruit and veggies, milk, pharmacy, post office, restaurants. That isn’t going to be quite as easy back home. St. Louis is not known for it’s walkability, though the neighborhood we live in gets a 63/100 on Walkscore. Not too bad for the energetic. We have great parks nearby, an okay grocery store less than a mile away, and several restaurants. The library is just under a mile and a half. There’s a big Target near there too. So, really I can get everything I need in less than 2 miles (each way!). That isn’t exactly close, but it’s doable. We were doing some walking to restaurants, and even to Target before we moved. Now that our habits have changed so much, it will be even easier for us. Our goal is to only use the car for special trips, like stocking up at Trader Joe’s or maybe a weekly trip to the farmers’ market. Brian is planning to bike to work, so we really won’t be using our car much at all. At least, that’s the plan. We had been discussing the possibility of buying a Prius. But when it comes right down to it, we’d be wasting our money. Sure, getting 50+ miles to the gallon would be nice, but if you simplify your life so that you aren’t relying on a car daily, you can save way more money by just not buying as much gas for your regular car. Even factoring in long trips to visit family doesn’t add up to as much as we’d spend on a new (or even used) car.

It’s good to take a step back and ask yourself, “what do I really need?” Life here in Italy is not focused on stuff. It’s about family and community. I will say this is becoming less true with the younger generations, where you see more American style consumption. However, family is still of utmost importance. Sundays are about going to “Mamma’s” and eating for 5 hours. That’s entertainment!

The idea is to relax. Stop going so much. That is what being here has taught me. Driving isn’t easy and tends to be stressful here, so I’m less motivated to get in a car and go somewhere. But that’s a good thing. Without all the running around, I found time to read, paint, and write. I want to preserve that as much as possible when I get back. I don’t want to get caught up in the hamster wheel again. A disclaimer: I tend to be a little anti-social. But when activities are just stressing you out, it’s time to cut back. With small kids on a schedule, you don’t really have a lot of time for running around anyway. Kids need downtime, oh, and adults do too! With downtime, you can do things that add to your real quality of life–spending time with friends and family or making healthy food for your family.

I often hear people say they don’t have the time to cook healthy food. I understand completely. When I worked full time I relied on lots of prepackaged convenience foods to get dinner on the table after a long day at work. But those foods aren’t good for you! The good news is that you can have healthy and quick weeknight dinners with only a little prior planning. These days I rarely spend more than 30 minutes preparing dinner and it’s all from natural whole foods.

Being home during the day, I can decide I want to have a bean dish that night and cook them during the day. However, if you work, you don’t have that luxury, so you have to plan ahead. If you can spare some time for bulk cooking on the weekend, you’ll have your meals prepped and ready to go for the 6 o’clock crunch.

You can prepare your time-intensive foods ahead of time and have them sorted by day in the refrigerator. If you go to the market for fresh produce on Saturday, you can spend some time washing and chopping the veggies so that they are ready to go. Same for things that have to cook awhile, like beans. Home cooked dried beans are so much better than canned! Most people don’t want to deal with them because it takes so long. And I used canned beans for somethings, too. But you can easily soak your beans overnight Saturday and then cook them for a few hours on Sunday. I’m talking about vegetarian options here, but you could easily do the same with meat, such as a pot roast, cooking it as a main meal on Sunday when you have more time and saving a third or half for use in other dishes such as stew or casseroles. Another great cook ahead item is pasta sauce, like bolognese or other meat (or “meat”) sauce. You can make a huge pot and then freeze in meal size portions. So then all you have to do move the sauce into the refrigerator the night before and then cook your pasta and a vegetable when you get home.

A sample meal plan could be as follows:

Saturday
Vegetable soup (you’re chopping up your veggies anyway, toss some in a pot and dinner is cooking!)
Cheddar garlic biscuits

Sunday
Freshly cooked pinto beans
Cornbread
Sauteed squash
Slow-simmered green beans

Monday
Quick Vegetable Curry
Basmati rice

Tuesday
Mexican pizza (with pinto beans and veggies)

Wednesday
Spaghetti with “meat” sauce (sauce from freezer)
Steamed or roasted green beans

Thursday
Bean Burritos
Mixed roasted vegetables (i.e. squash, peppers, green beans, potatoes)

Friday
Vegetable Risotto (with leftover roasted veggies)

So, the basic plan here is to use the weekend to prepare for the weekly meals. You shop Saturday morning. This example assumes a summer season, so you are buying squash, green beans, peppers, and potatoes (as well as onions and garlic). You then wash and chop your veggies. Then you sort them out by meal. So, a bunch go into the pot for Saturday evening’s soup. Then bag squash and green beans separately for Sunday, a large mixed bag for Monday, a small mixed bag for Tuesday, a bag of green beans for Wednesday, a large bag of (the rest of) the mixed veggies to cook Thursday (for both Thursday and Friday’s dinners). You’ve cooked your beans Sunday and get to use those in two additional meals that week, without feeling like you are eating the same thing. For the Mexican pizza, you can make a quick thin crust out of just whole wheat flour, butter, and milk–requires little kneading and no rising, so you just basically stir it up and roll it out. With the advance preparations, all of the weeknight meals can be made in about 30 minutes.
 

What really matters in life anyway? What is it that you’ll be so glad you did when you are on your deathbed? It most likely isn’t your job. Unless your job is doing something for which you have a true passion, but that is very rare. I think we all want to feel like we’ve contributed to the world in whatever way we best could. For some people that’s as simple as being a good mom (I said simple, not easy!). For others it’s advocating for the rights of those less fortunate.

Several months ago, I read The Art of Non-Conformity. It’s a great book about living life outside the rat race. Want to go back to school? Try his plan for a one-year independent study MBA, and save yourself a boatload of money. One of the things he brings up in the book, though, is that in order to really be fulfilled, you must find a way to give back to the world. We all want that feeling of having made a difference.

I’m not yet sure what that means for me. I have some long-term ideas about how I can make a difference by helping to motivate others to pursue their creative dreams. But the details of how to actually do that are still fuzzy. I’ve been of the mind recently that grad school is the way to go. If I get an MFA, I can teach. I really enjoyed the teaching I did before Alex was born, but do I want to do that full time? As far as jobs go, academia is pretty awesome. Summers off, anyone??? But one thing I know is that I’m not comfortable going into debt in order to get that degree. I value financial freedom more than any further education.

I fall into the trap of thinking, oh if I could just get that advanced degree then I could have a job I liked and make enough money to get by. But is all that really, truly, necessary? Or is it just an excuse to take the easy route? Degrees and jobs and career paths are the way things are done around here. It is a life script that we are all familiar with; it’s comfortable. To think of the alternatives is scary! No job? How will I survive? (Yes, I do have a husband, but the goal is for him to do what he loves, too!)

Our goal is to both be living our passion on a daily basis. And since we are two pretty headstrong people, our passion doesn’t involve taking direction from any one else. Not that we can’t. We’re both good at playing along with the corporate racket, but at the same time it kills one’s soul a little bit more every day. I know I could never have a corporate job again. Maybe I could handle academia. But do I really want that? Or do I want to have my days to myself and decide what I’d like to spend my time doing moment to moment?

Well, when you put it like that….

Another great book we read is Your Money or Your Life. The authors write about some unconventional approaches to work/life balance, with the general idea being to reduce your spending to the point of not needing to work as much. We’ve read other simple living books that espouse the same principles. And with that knowledge we have simplified our lives. We don’t buy so much useless crap. We choose quality products that will last a long time rather than what’s cheapest (this is also good for the planet, by the way). We aren’t perfect, and we definitely aren’t what you’d call thrifty, but most of our purchases are thoughtful at the very least. And we’ve come a long way from where we were when we first got married.

When I think about what I love to do, it’s obviously painting and writing. It’s not teaching. So why would teaching be my full time job when what I actually want to spend time doing is painting and writing? Teaching is something I enjoy, but it is secondary to painting and writing. So, it would make more sense for that to be the part time endeavor, rather than the other way around. So then, what is the degree actually worth? Education is always valuable. But you don’t have to always pay a lot for it. I had a full tuition scholarship for my undergraduate degree and I still walked away with a ridiculous amount of student loans for supplies, books, and living expenses. Having only recently paid all those off, I’m not too eager to get back into debt. It goes against our larger goal of financial freedom.

In a perfect world, we’d both be able to read, write, and create as much as we want. Our home would be paid for; our other expenses would be minimal; we could easily make enough money to pay for what we needed. We could grow some of our own food (well, Brian could anyway. I like the idea of gardens much more than the reality!). The simple life really appeals to me.

I went back to the states for a visit before Christmas. While there, I went to visit a friend who is living with her grandmother for awhile. Her grandmother is about 80, I think, and she is a prolific painter. When I walked into the garage from the driveway, I had to stop and stare. All the walls were lined with paintings. It was amazing. And there in the corner was her little studio. I talked to her about her paintings, naturally. I asked her if she ever sold them.

“No,” she said. “I don’t want to deal with that. I don’t want someone judging my work and saying it’s not good enough. It’s good enough for me. That’s what matters.”

I love her attitude. I don’t think you can ever really create something great for any reason other than because it is what your soul demands that you do. I’m not sure where I’m going with that other than to say that I wonder how much of my desire to get a degree is just my ego. I wonder if I’d be just as happy to paint and write, no matter what anyone else though of my work. Is it enough to just create? If you take away the financial pressure, is it enough to just create whatever your soul demands?

Last week I started reading Vegetable, Animal, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It was so good I even took it to Istanbul with me. And yes, I had time for reading while there. Traveling with a toddler is very different than on your own. Naptime is mandatory. So, while he napped, I napped a bit, then read.

The book is the story of one family’s decision to eat locally for a year. They planned to feed themselves from their own garden, local farms, and the farmers’ market. This means no bananas from South America, no apples from New Zealand. Do you know where your food comes from? If you are like me, you probably never really thought about it.

I have thought about it insofar as to say that while living in St. Louis it was more important to me to eat organic food than local food. This is because of Monsanto, of course. In that neighborhood, if it isn’t organically certified it’s probably genetically modified. But anyway. That was as far as I thought about the issue.

Fast forward to 2010: I’m living in Italy. I buy a lot of my food locally, all my produce for sure. But I’m still making these mammoth shopping trips to the base once a month for “staples.” Staples, really? Are they really staples if people here don’t buy them? Well, partly it is a financial thing, with some foods being cheaper. Partly it is familiarity, not having to figure out what is the local equivalent. Very little of it is truly unavailable here. I’ve just been lazy.

In reading this book I realized the true price of my laziness. Not only does going shopping at the base stress me out and leave me in an ill mood, it also costs enormous resources, both in fossil fuels and tax dollars. That food is mostly priced the same here as in the states. In reality it is much more expensive for having been shipped overseas. Who pays the difference? The tax payer, of course. This was all the motivation I needed to kill those monthly trips. Truth be told, I can live without cheddar cheese. And that is about the only thing that is truly unavailable at the local stores.

So, I feel kind of stupid. I mean I know I’m only human, and we are all notoriously naive about all sorts of things. But one of my motivations for being vegetarian is caring about our planet and being opposed to factory farming. Meat is definitely the big boy when it comes to detrimental farming practices, but shipping regular food staples all over the planet instead of getting them locally is just as bad for the environment. So, I am confessing my idiocy and pledging to do better.

The book talks about how detached we have become from our food sources. We, as Americans, have no idea where our food comes from or when it is in season. If you actually buy fresh fruit and vegetables and not all processed crap, you are that much closer to your food, but still. You probably buy South American bananas every week, not just as an occasional treat. I have heard stories from when our parents were small about getting citrus fruit for christmas. This sounded crazy to me. (Fruit? What about toys?) But winter is citrus season in the US, so it makes sense. It was a winter treat. The fact that we now have bags of oranges year round isn’t natural.

Moving here, I have been so amazed by how good everything tastes. I thought it was the volcanic soil, but now I realize it is the difference in eating with the seasons. I bought fresh cherries today that are just to die for! I hated cherries in the states because I’d never tried any that were good, probably because they didn’t grow near where I lived. Same for sweet peppers. We have the most amazing red and yellow peppers here. They really are “sweet” peppers, not bitter like the ones you buy in American supermarkets.

I love good food. In my opinion, life is simply too short to eat food that doesn’t taste good. We aren’t designed to eat food that doesn’t taste good. Factory farmed food that has been shipped halfway across the country started out with less flavor and then lost what it did have in shipping. In nature, flavor equals nutrition. When you detox from processed crap and start eating real food, you realize your body craves certain flavors based on what nutrients you need. Your body craves heavier food in the winter to keep warm and lighter food in the summer when it is hot. Your body knows what it is doing.

Not only have we forgotten where our food comes from and when it naturally appears, but we have also forgotten what to do with it. What do you do in January or February when (you don’t live in southern Italy and) there isn’t fresh produce? You eat the food you preserved in the summer when it was abundant. Preserving food is a lost art. I have a date with my mother-in-law for sometime in the future when we are stateside to show me how to can food. Even if you don’t have your own garden, you can go to the farmers’ market and buy a boatload of whatever is in season and put it away in bags in your freezer or canned in the basement. Don’t think you have space? Stop buying things in cardboard boxes and you’ll find you have more space in your freezer (and probably more dollars in your wallet).

While living here, I will continue to eat whatever is available at the market whenever it is available, rather than trying to preserve things. I don’t think there was any point this winter that we didn’t have relatively local produce at the corner market. Sometimes from Sicily, but that is still pretty close. But whenever we move back to the states, I will certainly be planning ahead for winter when produce is not available locally. This week I’ll be venturing out locally to see if I can’t check off the items on my shopping list without wasting all those resources. It’s just one more thing I can do to make the world a better place. Every little bit helps!

Start Simply. Live Greener.

One of the biggest examples of our insane American consumerist culture is the wedding registry. Don’t get me wrong. It is a fabulous invention. You get gifts that you want and will actually use. That sort of living by design is one of the tenants of simple living. Unfortunately it also tends to be a consumer free for all. “Let’s buy everything now! Even if we don’t need it (or have room for it) now, we might need it some day. So, we should put it on the registry, right?”

Well, no, actually. Those premade lists are to help stores sell products not to help you design your life. So is there a better way to do it?

One of the things I’ve talked about here before is the idea that simple living is not necessarily frugal living. It is about making good choices so that you get value for the money spent. It is better to buy a more expensive quality product, than a cheap item that will have to be replaced over and over again. Buy products that are made to last. It saves money over the long run and it is much better for the environment. So with a wedding registry think about quality over quantity. Think about good basic items that will last over the years. Save the decorative items for your own (hopefully more creative and resourceful) shopping.

Here is a suggested registry list from Real Simple. It is, in fact, on the simple side–much better than the mammoth list at The Knot.

From that list, what are some good quality items that can multi task and last you a lifetime (or at least a long time)? Let’s start with the smallest room in the house.

Towels - Go ahead and register for good quality fluffy white towels–bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths. Make sure the bath towels are 52″ or longer. You can always accent your bathroom later with inexpensive hand towels in different colors.
Shower Curtain – Go cloth! Skip the crappy vinyl liner and get a nice white, water resistant, washable cloth liner. You can layer a more decorative curtain on the outside as your style and preference change over time.
Trash Can – A small stainless trashcan (with a lid) always looks good and you’ll be glad it has a lid if you get a pet or have a baby later!

Bathrobes - There is a good chance you already have these. If not, they make a nice gift for each other. Think about snuggling up together in new robes at Christmastime!
Bath Mat – This is a great way to add a personal touch to your bathroom decor. Find vintage rugs from a flea market or check yardsales and craigslist. I’ve been much happier with a cotton rag throw rug in the bathroom than I ever was with those rubber backed “bath mats”. It is washable, water absorbent, and lasts much longer.
Soap Dish – This is another decorative item. If you use bar soap, a cute vintage saucer from a thrift store or grandma’s house could look great. If you want a pump for liquid soap, look for something well made. I found that the $10 pumps from Target end up getting discolored or corroded on the metal parts after only a short time. I have a slightly more expensive one from Crate and Barrel ($20 maybe?) that looks brand new after 6 years.
Toothbrush Holder – You need somewhere to store your toothbrush if you don’t have a medicine cabinet. But a toothbrush holder with the little holes? Pass. They are not easy to clean and they are only good for that one thing. If you decide you don’t like it anymore, there isn’t really anywhere else in the house you can use it. Try a cool vintage glass cup instead.
Hamper – Personally, I think hampers are ridiculous. You put clothes into one container only to have to transfer them into another container to transport to the laundry room. I don’t like housework well enough to add extra steps to the process! Get some laundry baskets and store them in the closet if you don’t want your dirty clothes lying around for the world to see.

The idea is to lay a good foundation of quality items. Then find creative, earth friendly ways to add your personal touch. Stay tuned for Part 2!

Sometimes the universe just steps right in and simplifies your life for you! Amazing, no? This weeks simplification came in the form of a brown crayon hidden in Alex’s school smock. It had a delightful little journey through our washing machine and into the dryer, where is dispersed its happy little brown self all over a whole load of laundry. Normally I wash all of Alex’s clothes separately. Good thing I didn’t, because the poor boy wouldn’t have had anything to wear. Unfortunately some of my very favorite things were in the wash. My gap khakis. Both my blue striped button downs. My favorite tee. My new black and white striped tee. All things I love and wear all the time. Ugh. So annoying. And of course, I can’t even find replacements (yes, I already looked online!). So, simplification by force. Oh well.

I love books. I love to read them. I love to have them around. My darling husband is always quick to point out that having shelves and shelves of books is the antithesis of simple living. He does his part to prevent a complete invasion of our living space by picking up books for me from the library. But I still buy books. I am particularly fond of hardcover books. I don’t generally buy hardcover in new releases (in fact, I don’t really read many new releases). But I would like to have a library of classics, so I’m always on the lookout for hardcover classics. I stumbled across these the other day:
Aren’t they beautiful? The one on the far right is The Picture of Dorian Gray. I love that book, and isn’t the cover gorgeous? So, anyway, I want all of these!!! I recently went through my hardcover books and removed the dust covers. I don’t know why I didn’t do it when I first got them. Dust cover = protection from dust? I don’t know. But it occurred to me one day that they just slide around and get torn and are generally annoying. So, I threw them all away. To my surprise, most of the books were white, black, or blue underneath the dust covers. So, I just love that these Penguin classics are so colorful. They will make a lovely addition to my bookshelves. (Much to my husband’s dismay.)

Adventure

This photo perfectly illustrates the spirit of adventure! I saw this photo again the other day, and it still makes me smile. We were on the ferry over to Ischia this summer. Alex and his friend were loving life! They were absolutely thrilled with the sea, the air, the boat, with life. When is the last time any of us grown-ups felt or looked like these two?! Life is worth getting excited over! This year I want to be more excited for life and for the everyday adventures that come my way. And when life seems boring, I want to find the adventure that is waiting just around the corner.

Authenticity

This is a big one. Authenticity is honesty–honesty with yourself and others. It is living the life you believe in, the life you choose. It is about not settling for second best (or worse), but rather seeking out your dreams. It is about being who you say you are. It is about speaking your truth clearly without fear of judgement or condemnation. In the past several years, I have worked through a lot of demons in the context of religion, education, societal norms, and career choices. I am at a place now where I feel at peace with all of those things. But sometimes I have trouble expressing my views when I feel like I’m being judged for them. And maybe sometimes I am in fact being judged, and it is better to just keep quiet. A person who is judging you is never going to hear you anyway. But often, the fear of judgement is probably only in my mind. If the person is truly my friend they should at the very least respect my different point of view. This is the biggest challenge to living authentically–being confident and honest about your beliefs and the life you choose. I sometimes feel as though I should share some of the things I’ve figured out along the way, but I refrain from fear of offending someone. This year I hope to move past that and be able to speak freely about who I am and why.

Attraction

A few years ago a book called “The Secret” came out. I didn’t read it, but it is about the law of attraction and I’d read another book about that. The premise is that you create your world. You are the one in charge, not God or fate, or whatever. Long before I learned about this concept, I was already using it. I just didn’t realize it. I spent a good bit of time with a journal, writing about my unhappiness and what sort of life I thought I wanted. A few months ago I came across my journal from a couple years ago and read back through it. One of the things I wrote was that I really wanted to travel, write, and paint. And here I am doing exactly that. I set the intention for myself without even realizing it. The trick is to focus on what you do want, rather than dwelling on what is wrong with your life. I could have spent hours thinking of all the reasons I hated my job. But I asked myself “what do you want instead?”

Checking in with yourself is an important life skill. I spent a good part of my life being unhappy. I didn’t necessarily project unhappiness, but it was always there inside me. I finally got to the point where I realized that it was my responsibility. If I wasn’t happy with my life, I needed to change my life. At first you might not even know what you want. And that is why there are a billion and one ways of living life–try them on until you find one you like. Drop all your preconceived notions and judgements and just go try things that sound like they might work for you. It is probably not a bad idea to also occasionally try things you know (or think you know) won’t work for you–just to be sure! When you identify some things you like and want in your life, set the intention for yourself. Don’t get wrapped up in the where, when, and how. Just acknowledge your desires and believe in your ability to have them, somehow, someway, eventually. But stay focused on where/what you want to be, not on the things that make you unhappy.

In the coming year, I hope to embrace adventures and use them to learn more about myself and what I want out of life; to live with authenticity, confidently expressing my views so that I might share some wisdom with others; and to continue to attract the people, places, and experiences that will allow me to grow and develop into a clearer image of who I really am.

I am grateful for space. What is space?

space: [speys]
–noun
1. the unlimited or incalculably great three-dimensional realm or expanse in which all material objects are located and all events occur.
2. the portion or extent of this in a given instance; extent or room in three dimensions: the space occupied by a body.
3. extent or area in two dimensions; a particular extent of surface: to fill out blank spaces in a document.
4. Fine Arts. a. the designed and structured surface of a picture: In Mondrian’s later work he organized space in highly complex rhythms. b. the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface.
5. Outer Space
6. Deep Space
7. a seat, berth, or room on a train, airplane, etc.
8. a place available for a particular purpose: a parking space.
9. linear distance; a particular distance: trees separated by equal spaces.
10. Mathematics. a system of objects with relations between the objects defined.
11. extent, or a particular extent, of time: a space of two hours.
12. an interval of time; a while: After a space he continued his story.
13. an area or interval allowed for or taken by advertising, as in a periodical, on the radio, etc.
14. Music. the interval between two adjacent lines of the staff.
15. an interval or blank area in text: a space between the letters.
16. Printing. one of the blank pieces of metal, less than type-high, used to separate words, sentences, etc.
17. Telegraphy. an interval during the transmitting of a message when the key is not in contact.
18. radio or television broadcast time allowed or available for a program, advertisement, etc.
19. freedom or opportunity to express oneself, resolve a personal difficulty, be alone, etc.; allowance, understanding, or noninterference: Right now, you can help by giving me some space

(from Dictionary.com)

I thought when I looked that up, I’d add a tidy little definition from which to leap into this monologue. Wow! Little did I know space was such a big word! But it is true. There are lots of different kinds of space. But all of the definitions actually fall into the first one. It is the expanse in which all things exist or occur. And it’s good to have around. Sometimes we feel like we need more space. Perhaps our calendar is too full. I was feeling that crowding this morning as I tried to cram too many things into too few hours. I actually don’t like having anything on my calendar if I can avoid it! I generally have no problem keeping my time-space fairly open.

I have also gotten better about clearing mind-space. I used to be a worrier. My favorite quote in college was from the bible…do not worry about tomorrow, today has enough worries of its own. I guess I understood that I was worrying too much, but didn’t do much to stop it for the next several years. But gradually I came to understand the value of clearing some mind-space. When a worry crosses my mind, or even just that anxious feeling, I confront it. Where is this coming from? Then I address whatever the problem is right then, rather than letting it fester. Then I let it go. Completely. And I enjoy some free mind-space. You might be surprised to know that you don’t need to have a constant stream of thoughts running through your head. It is okay to just be blank space for a bit. Try it, you’ll like it. And then you will want more of it. Creativity comes from the blank space, not the crowded, crazy, anxiety ridden space.

This morning I was also thinking about physical space. I was thinking about the fact that my house needs a good cleaning. I need to have a lot of blank space on my schedule before I’m willing to pencil that one in! There are just always a million other things I’d rather do. I suppose I should just embrace the task with a zen-like appreciation. But in my morning’s musing, I was thinking that the less space you have, the less you need to clean. Right now we live in a very big space. Maybe not by typical American standards, but definitely by Italian standards. This cleaning thing is always one of the things that makes me think a smaller home is better. There are other reasons, too, like financial savings. But a big one for me is the upkeep. I think sometimes that we would get rid of a lot more of our crap if we lived in a smaller space. But today, I was thinking that you don’t have to move to a smaller space to get rid of crap.

I’m so careful about protecting my time-space, even my mind-space, but I let things creep into my physical-space. Paperwork, things I buy, things that are given to me, etc. I haven’t been very careful about that. I think a purge is in order. There are things around me that I never touch. Why wait until we are moving into a smaller space and are forced to purge? Why not do it now? There are plenty of people in the world that live without a double lateral file. Why is mine full? Do I really need all of those pieces of paper? Ultimately all those things crowding the physical-space affect the time-space and mind-space.

I don’t think I could ever live a minimalist existence. I enjoy nice things. I enjoy feeling cozy and being surrounded by things I love. But not all the things around me are things I love. I need to be more solicitous in what I allow to enter my physical-space, and also what I allow to stay. I may not be able to stop it from arriving, but I can get rid of it before it makes a home here. I need to protect my space.

It is simplification. It is focusing on what matters. It is being grateful for what you have and not focusing on what you don’t have. Space is a blank canvas…empty space just waiting to inspire. I am grateful for the space I can move through in this world.