One little word...

Although perhaps this image is simple in appearance, to me the word 'simplify' is anything but simple.  It entails making things less complicated, easier and reduced.  Let me tell you a wee story about how this little word radically changed my life.  

Twenty years ago we made a decision to move out of the community we'd lived in for many years to a beautiful rural valley 45 minutes away.  We bought a small piece of land where we were surrounded by breathtaking mountain views and could hear the sounds of a rushing river several hundred feet away.  It was my little piece of heaven!  I took on the project of building (contracting) our 4000 square foot home from the ground up.  Quite an undertaking but 6 months later we moved into our beautiful new home.  We lived there happily, enjoying the peace and serenity that comes when contentment has settled and found its place.  

Life carried on.  My husband commuted, I began working part time, our kids attended school and university, then began working jobs and eventually moving out.  Ten years into our move, through a series of interesting life altering events, we began sensing that perhaps it was time to sell our home.  Our oldest daughter had married during this time and given us a precious little granddaughter, and all 3 of our kids were back in the community we'd moved out of.  Through this time of shifting gears and decision making, we realized that we wanted...no, needed to simplify our lives.  To us that meant downsize our living space, learning to live with less and choosing our time wisely.  

Our house sold in one day to the first people that viewed it and we bought an older home half the size of the house we'd just sold, back in the community we'd moved from 10 years prior.  Then came the hard part.  The simplifying.  We had SO much stuff!  As I began packing up for our move, I was brutal in culling what was necessary and what could be sold or given away.  The hardest part in this process were the items that held sentimental value to me.  I asked myself the question, "if I keep this, will it mean something to either my kids or grandkids after I'm gone?"  A difficult process, but it really helped.  

This July it will be eleven years that we moved.  The simplifying process didn't happen overnight.  Our life as it was back then was very full, but slowly over the years, we've worked at cutting down and cutting back.  It was and continues to be a daily choice and practise.  An intention.

One of the things my husband has been saying for years is to 'simplify your life because life has a way of complicating itself'.  How true!  We are affected either positively or negatively by one decision, whether it be one illness or accident, one death or birth, one marriage or divorce.  All of these and others can change or alter the course of our life.  

This little kitchen tea towel was given to me as a gift when we moved into this house.  It hangs from my oven door handle, serving as a gentle reminder.