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.

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.

SIMPLE LIVING - SMALL SPACES

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify. Simplify.           Henry David Thoreau

I have loved Thoreau for decades. His message of simplicity always rang true for me. And don't get me started about his adorable house in the woods. Alas. No house in the woods for this girl (yet), and my simplicity is a work in progress, but I am convinced that to grow old peaceful and to be able to retire in some way, simplicity - at least a more simple existence is called for.