Get Real

"Language most shows a man; speak so that I may see thee."  

 Ben Johnson (Poet b. 1572)

This post is about a couple of things. First (and not foremost), it is about boring repetition. Second it is about choosing our words carefully. And finally, it is about honesty.

The phrase first and foremost must fade away. Now. Writing both is a redundancy. If something is first - as in the first reason you do something, or the first of anything, you don't need foremost. Foremost means: leading, principal, FIRST, premier, top, best, and more. First means: FOREMOST, principal, top, and more. These words mean the same thing. That means that to always be using them together is redundant. Who started this? Someone has to stop it first. Let it be me and you; should you choose to take the challenge.  I challenge you to scour this phrase from your writing. Firstly, your writing will be more concise, but the foremost reason for cutting this phrase from your writing is that it is redundant. Lose redundancy in your writing, and your writing will be more enjoyable to read, and more understandable.

Stuff and Passion

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."

I love to cook. I love to knit and sew. I love to garden. I love to entertain. I love to read. I love to listen to music and watch movies. But I am trying very hard to be a minimalist. And all of these things could lead me down a path of mass consumption. 

Laughter and Old Age

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

 William Shakespeare

Today is my birthday. 60 years ago today my parents welcomed me into a postwar world of prosperity and seemingly unending growth. They had lost two babies before me, my brothers, so I became the oldest of what would eventually include three more siblings, my two sisters and my brother. 

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.

LETTING GO. MOVING ON.

Is this not the age old problem with trying to create a simple life. What can I let go? What can I live without? Where in my life is there excess?

In creating my own simple life I am constantly asking myself what I can edit next. As we come into the holiday season, and I read article after article about the billions of dollars people are spending on more stuff, to give to people who have lots of stuff, I am wondering when we can say we have enough.