GIVING UP MY DECORATING ADDICTION

"Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance." 

                                                                                                     Coco Chanel

Often times, addictions demand that we keep them secret. But decorating (or over decorating) has become an addiction that is lived out in the open all over America.

Not that there is anything wrong with having a neat, nicely appointed home, a well-kept garden, or clean sheets on your bed. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about filling a home to the brim with too much stuff, and spending more and more money on that stuff, maybe even spending when I should have been saving, just to have the latest and greatest thing being advertised.

ALL THE BOOKS

It is freezing cold here in Northwest Ohio, finally. We really can't complain. It has felt like spring up until now; we knew it couldn't last.

Freezing cold makes me want to stay in and hopefully not have to go out until spring, but alas I have to get up each morning and trek to work. When I get home the thing I enjoy doing the most is not watching T.V., it's reading.

MINIMALISM JOURNEY

"When walking, walk. When eating, eat."

Thich Nhat Hanh

A post about minimalism, or why I think possessions are too heavy (and maybe even prisons)

I'm writing "this post the day after what would have been my Mom's 90th birthday. She died suddenly at the end of the summer in 2005, just about the time Hurricane Katrina was making landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi. I hardly remember that devastating storm. I only mention it as a metaphor for the storm my family lived through losing my mom so quickly.