Similar to the Ideal Life Theme of “Gravitas”, “Contentment” is quite idiosyncratic. If “Gravitas” is part of my Ideal Life, it is because I have always felt as though, for some reason, I never properly grew up into an adult. If “Contentment” is part of my Ideal Life, it is because I have never beenContinue reading “The Ideal Life Round-Up Contentment”
Category Archives: Stuff
Thankfulness Week, Day Three: Useful Things
My scalawags eat enough apples to keep the doctor away from our entire neighborhood. I’m talking like, four apples a day. Each. I love it that they love apples, but, goodness gracious that’s a lot of peeling and cutting. In our kitchen, I have a little apple cutting station. (Not the kind of thing IContinue reading “Thankfulness Week, Day Three: Useful Things”
Decluttering and Mental Health
I wish I had a magic potion that would put me in the mood to be brutally objective about all the stuff I have managed to accumulate over the years. If I could market that magic potion just right….oh the possibilities. There is a complex web of reasons why I hang on to items thatContinue reading “Decluttering and Mental Health”
The Dissatisfaction Cycle
Back in January, I began to theorize about the vicious cycle of dissatisfaction. The cycle that I (theoretically) observed as it related to wanting things that I couldn’t or shouldn’t have looked like this: 1. See thing, love thing, want thing2. Connive to obtain thing3. Anticipate how thing will make life perfect4. Become inevitably disappointedContinue reading “The Dissatisfaction Cycle”
Contentment, aka “stuff”
On Monday of the first week of Ideal Life Exercises, I think about Contentment. When I started this series about the Ideal Life Exercises, I was on week two…it just worked out that way. I will publish separately the printables which accompanied the different weeks when we first started talking about the Ideal Life Exercises,Continue reading “Contentment, aka “stuff””
Craft and Creativity
When I said that there is overlap in my Ideal Life Themes, I was not kidding. I have found that, for example, as way to channel my hormonal rage, the sound of the sewing machine and the act of tearing something apart and sewing it back together again are therapeutic. At the same time, inContinue reading “Craft and Creativity”
Origin of the Lily Fields Challenge
The Lily Fields Challenge really started in 2004, although I didn’t start taking it seriously until 2020. In 2004, it was a quiet little idea. A question. A thought that flitted through my mind. In 2004 it was my first handknit project. My mother-in-law worked most of her life as a supervisor at a shelteredContinue reading “Origin of the Lily Fields Challenge”
Take Nothing With You, Part One
Decluttering as a spiritual exercise I want to share a small part of my personal journey which has influenced how I see decluttering and minimalism as a spiritual exercise. My French husband and I married in 1999 and moved around quite a bit: we lived overseas, we lived in Cleveland, Ohio, we lived in Orlando,Continue reading “Take Nothing With You, Part One”
The Red Line
When I started down the journey to live lighter, it was a practical study: we were four people living in the space which only two had previously inhabited and we needed more space. A bigger apartment was not in the cards, so if we wanted to not drown in stuff, then we needed to declutter.Continue reading “The Red Line”
The Saga of the Elf Boots Part 3: Epilogue
You know that feeling when you tear open the wrapping paper on a gift? A beautifully wrapped gift, one whose box and wrapping only faintly hint at the wonder that is inside? You vaguely know what you are hoping for, but don’t dare dream that this could be it? Or, or, or…you are expecting thatContinue reading “The Saga of the Elf Boots Part 3: Epilogue”
Sing With Your Feet 