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“I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible, loving, human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of pride.” -William James
Do you know the “The Not So Big House” books by Sarah Susanka, the architect who got tired of McMansions, conspicuous consumption, unsustainable architectural practices? She’s very interested in what makes a place feel like home, thinking it may have less to do with scale and more to do with quality. Now she’s created “The Not So Big Life: Making Room for what Really Matters” a book about creating a sustainable life where form and function serve life goals rather than the other way around. A Not So Big Life describes her process of inner transformation through which she found more meaning, vitality and that sense of being “at home” in life, something that many of us long for today. Take a look at her website, especially the resources section (where you can download free information) and think about the idea of a “Not So Big Life.”
I read somewhere that someone realised she could enjoy as much pleasure in getting rid of things as she had in buying them in the first place. I’ve experienced that too, this week; clearing out some no-longer-joyful acquisitions.
Reclaiming the space and reducing the stuff I share my home with is deeply satisfying. Maybe even more so than the original buyer’s buzz.
I was talking about that with a pal, and we agreed it would be good if we could turn that buyer’s hunger on to our already-here stuff ; if we could go to our well-laden bookshelves with the same edgy getting-something-new excitement as we do when we go shopping, in any form. One thing I figured a while back was that I could take that ‘want something new’ impulse to the library, and get new-to-me things, and for free, there. I could satisfy that desire to select and to take, the primal hunt-and-gather thing maybe, and I could even enjoy the added contentment of knowing this is not clutter-to-be, this is short-term stash. And if I really want to actually spend money, then some dvd rentals are added in the mix. Libraries as a kind of methodone for book-junkies… Sometimes, it works. For specific gotta-have-that-nows, the instant online grab-shopping is probably always going to be the thing, but for the times when it’s more of a generic shopping / ‘want-new-mirrors’ thing, then the library can be a fine supplier.
Clearing stuff out, to relish the acquisition/creation of more space is really the creative contentment of the moment, overhere, though.
Pic is from the cover view at my bookshelf on librarything. (Ok, I admit; not all my books are on there.) xxx
