Waste Not, Want Not

In my post Learning To Breathe, I listed our physiological needs as fresh air, pure water, healthy food, and sound sleep. While these things are critical for our survival, I forgot one important thing. In going through the processes of breathing, eating, and sleeping, we produce waste products, and the removal of these wastes is just as critical to our survival as the taking in of these necessities.

When wastes build up in our system, whether it is our body, our environment, our home, our job, or our relationships, they can be toxic. The Encarta World English Dictionary defines toxic as relating to or containing a poison; causing serious harm or death. We have to get rid of the waste, or taking in more and more of the "good stuff" doesn't do us any good. When we are full of waste, yet continue to take in more and more, we are being wasteful.

While material goods are important, they are necessary only in moderation. Accumulating more than is necessary is toxic to our system. Material goods are meant to serve a purpose and that purpose is to help fulfill our fundamental needs. A home shelters us from the heat and cold. A fulfilling career helps meet our need to contribute to the world around us. But when our possessions and activities build, they no longer fulfill this purpose. They become clutter, and another way to look at clutter is to call it waste.

It seems I've always had difficulty with accumulating clutter. Being an only child and an only grandchild, my family members were very generous with gifts of both attention and material goods.

When I moved from my childhood home into a much smaller home 45 miles away, I only took what I really needed…or at least that's what I thought. This was my first true experience with purging and, to my surprise, it felt really good. I can truthfully say that I didn't come to miss one thing that I got rid of.

When my husband and I merged households, we essentially doubled our material goods. While we tried to keep everything under control via organizational strategies, life soon got in the way and once again we found ourselves buried under a mountain of clutter.

Unfortunately, it isn't just a mountain of material clutter. The clutter also comes from an imbalance in our system. It seems my needs for participation, creativity, and understanding are getting in the way of meeting many of my more basic needs of healthy food, exercise, and relaxation.

I look around and see plenty of opportunities to meet all my needs: friends, art classes, creative projects at home and work, mountain bikes, a backyard pond, a picturesque landscape, a beautiful home, and a loving husband and family. Yet it is this overabundance of opportunities that is creating the clutter of which I speak.

It seems my husband and I are constantly battling the physical clutter that surrounds us (laundry, dishes, paperwork, yard work); however, the clutter returns, usually within 24 hours and often times even sooner. If I look more closely, I find that it is the clutter of activity more than the clutter of things that creates the most waste in my life. I also seem to be constantly battling this clutter as well.

Perhaps the answer is in the perspective I take. Earlier I mentioned the clutter that seems to make my life so unmanageable is actually waste, a byproduct of life. Just as one breathes out carbon dioxide or makes a trip to the restroom after drinking a large glass of water, one must deal with the byproducts of material goods and activities. Typically, the more input you have, the more output you get.

If I'm being overwhelmed by the byproducts of life, then I need to take a look at what I'm putting into the system to begin with. Perhaps the next phase of my journey is waste management. I'm off to the landfill of my life for a little excavating. Instead of urban archaeology, it's more "urchin" archaeology (as in unkempt, mischievous child). Hopefully it will lead to some "urbane" renewal. Anyone want to join me?

The Realization

"The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity." -Ludwig Wittgenstein

Why is it that we don't realize what we have until it's gone...or nearly gone...or at least difficult to find...perhaps too late to salvage? I've recently found myself awash in the clutter of culture, the clutter of a society gone mad it seems. We drown ourselves in noise, blind ourselves with opulence, empty our hearts with longings for what we do not have, and tire ourselves with endless quests for something (anything) that truly matters.

If only we could (would) stop fueling our madness. Turn off the television, unplug the iPod, push away the laptop and look towards the other end of the sofa. Who is sitting there, a few feet yet a million miles away? Isn't it what (who) truly matters?

I'm not advocating neo-ludditism. I'm simply asking (you and myself) a few questions. When was the last time you talked WITH someone? When was the last time you spent time with someone without looking at your watch or a clock? When was the last time you didn't feel guilty for letting your phone ring or opting to spend time with family rather than work?

The Simple Truth isn't a rant (athough it may appear that way on some occasions). It is simply one woman's slow, deliberate journey to take moments each day to stop what she's doing and observe what is right there under her nose; to see what is so familiar that she no longer appreciates its presence; and to use her time to think about, realize and enjoy what truly matters. It is also her invitation for you to take this journey as well.