Tango and I are settled into my friend Gennie’s house in the Williamette Valley, in Central Oregon. She is making the transition to becoming a full-time RVer and needs some help making forward progress. Sorting through things and making decisions about what to keep for this next phase of life is so difficult. What goes…
Small is Beautiful, Small is High-Tech. Now I want to propose that small is also low-tech. Why not have the best of both worlds while reducing your carbon footprint and creating a simpler life. However, thanks to my recent posts, my definition of small is getting large, so I will clarify what I am talking…
Simplifying. Minimalist lifestyle. Slowing down. These pursuits involve getting rid of excess possessions that choke our body and soul. Ask any empty-nester, recent retiree or minimalist officianado how destuffing leads to a new freedom. Some minimalists may also be anti-technology, although I am not. In fact, high-tech helps me to get RID of often burdensome possessions. The…
After a weekend of living big in Denver, I am pondering the character of small. Thesaurus.com informs me that synonyms for small include scanty, shrimp, stunted, and insufficient. I talk back to the website: no, small is beautiful. I remember the book Small is Beautiful, written by EF Schumacher in the 1970s and the concept presented there:…
In my last post, I mentioned that I want to radically simplify. What a luxury to ask such questions, especially if you consider how 80% of the world’s population struggles to find clean water each day. Anyway, now I must figure out what radical simplifying means. I am pondering the following: Will I measure my…
Well, I will have lots of adventure to share in the upcoming months. I am leaving my minister job here and moving on! I have not decided on my next landing spot but am pursuing several options. I loved my time here, the people I served. I will miss my beautiful yellow house and gardens…
Frequent readers know that I am trying to live a more minimalist lifestyle and euphemistically call the process of purging my excess belongings “simplifying” and even “destuffing”. This week, I wrestled again with the shifting moods of my materialistic inner being. The mood on my day off was: get rid of the stuff you have…
At the moment I have 5 college-aged kids staying with me. They are Vacation Bible School camp counselors from Outlaw Ranch, South Dakota. The counselors lead camp for a whole week, in the City Park. We join forces with 5 other local churches to bring the counselors here each summer. I love having the counselors…
I wrote recently about my process of “Destuffing“, or getting rid of all the junk that is either in closets or around me every day. I got motivated again last week after having coffee with a friend. She said, “I don’t have anything in my house that I don’t use”. Wow! Although I have done quite…
Today was finally the big church rummage sale. I am happy to say that I took over far more TO the sale than I brought home FROM the sale. I took boxes and boxes of stuff and brought back only one with someone else’s junk. That has not been true in past years; however, I…