One of my favorite & most loyal bring joy readers, Joya, once made a comment along the lines of–as she gets older, she just wants things to be more & more simple.
That’s stuck with me.
I think a sign of maturity & wisdom is learning this truth: an uncluttered, simple life, free of baggage (both material & otherwise) is happiness.
As you know, we’re in this huge transition phase (you know I’m elbow deep in Life when things are quiet around here).
I’m undergoing quite a mindset makeover.
As we’re streamlining & downsizing our household, finances, & routines, it’s opening more time & space for some really awesome stuff.
Like spending more time with each other. Spending more time creating, rather than consuming.
I don’t race around the city, shuffling kids from activity to activity (why, here). I spend very little time in stores these days. With each bag of donated stuff to Goodwill, my house is cleaner, my mind is sharper.
By focusing on essentials, my life is gaining in sparkling simplicity.
And as a result, I’m seeing the world with fresh eyes.
I absolutely don’t want to waste another second on stupid or inconsequential stuff–worry/anxiety about looks/weight/what others think, catty gossip, & so many other things outside my circle of control.
I don’t want to spend my days buying stuff that only adds chaos & clutter to my life.
I don’t want minutes & hours to be sucked away on social media, mind numbing TV shows.
I want to live, really live Life, rather than watch or comment on others living it.
I want my life to be simple.
I want know these people, to feel their breath on my neck, to see the laughter in their eyes when they tell me a joke. To be the one to scoop them up, to douse them in kisses & hugs while they’ll still let me.
The beautiful thing is, to do these things no money, no thing.
Just me & them, presence & time.
A note on these photos: All were taken by me in August 2014. It was torture. I don’t know if taking family pictures is ever fun, but when you’re trying to corral five young things, who don’t care about smiling & posing, it’s a tough crowd to work with. I took the photos using my Nikkon D3100 DSLR with a portrait lens.
A note on my kids: My kids range in age from 9 years to 10 months. Their names are, from oldest to youngest: Hyrum, Asher, Amalia, Salem, & Tyndale.
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