Again and again it keeps coming up for me: the challenge to become minimalist, to practice simplicity.
I am a hoarder by nature and by training; the fear of not having enough drives me. When I pack for holidays I fear being too cold, too hot, too under-dressed, too over-dressed... I am sensitive both to temperature changes and to people's responses to and impressions of me. No wonder it is hard for me to take just one small bag! At work I teach an advanced level ESL class, and an academic preparation class - but who knows when I will teach Elementary or Intermediate, Discussion Skills or Pronunciation, Business Vocabulary or Social Issues again? No wonder I have multiple boxes and folders crowded around my desk.
Yet last year I spend six months of the year house-sitting, moving every three to four weeks, coming back to my base at my sister and brother-in-law's house in between. In each move I carried a car-load of goods - enough clothes for work in different temperatures and as the season changed, for going out on weekends, for concerts or parties planned and not yet planned, for swimming or for bushwalks; though I drew the line at hiking boots, the hair-drier almost always came with me. And moving days were exhausting - cleaning the whole house I was leaving, packing and unpacking. If anything, the year left me with a desire to minimise.
A few blogs have encouraged me, most notably Becoming Minimalist. I have in fact been "trying" to reduce for the last couple of years. This year I finally have the sense that it is possible. I am just beginning the journey, perhaps I will never be an expert at it, but I finally feel that it is actually possible.
