All Just Too Much
One morning last fall, I remember tripping over bag of garbage as I got out of my car on my way to work. Annoyed and frustrated, I looked up and down the street to see the huge piles of objects that people were discarding on a weekly basis. Then I thought of myself edging sideways through a few of the rooms in our own house because they are so full of stuff that there is no other way to navigate them. [NOTE: It's all good stuff, but there is just too much of it to use, find or enjoy properly.]
We still live in an age of excess, perhaps in a very long pendulum swing from the Depression-era where even the most basic necessities were hard to come by. The pendulum has been swinging back the other way for a long time in the design world, where minimalism is key... but sometimes I wonder how that minimalism is achieved. In many cases, it does not seem to be achieved by buying less or more wisely, but by buying the latest as soon as it arrives on the scene and throwing everything else out on a regular basis.
Other types of excess are more intangible; we can fill our time with too many activities and our brains with too much information to process on a daily basis.
Paradoxically, I often come out of the holiday season with two pleasant—but diametrically opposed—sensations. On one hand, I recognize abundance and blessing, whether rooted in the recent or distant past, a sense of tradition and connection, of being firmly grounded with family and friends... and on the other, I feel a fresh sense of lightness, of letting go, allowing an openness to the unknown as a New Year begins, testing my wings in new directions and making space for the unexpected, unencumbered by too many self-imposed burdens of expectation.
How does a frequent sense of burdensome obligations, of constant calls upon my time and resources over the course of the year transform into that enjoyable sense of abundance and blessing over the holidays? Why does a fearful and restless uncertainty about the future become a hopeful openness to the unknown as I head into a new year?
This year, a few rounds of bad colds and flu over the holidays forced me to slow down quite a bit more than usual, taking a break from some of my usual self-imposed expectations and spending more time just visiting quietly with family. What could be perceived as a major inconvenience actually allowed me to flow into 2015 with a calmer and more rested state of mind.
To be honest, I think "too much" is in the eye of the beholder. It's not really about how much or how little time or stuff or information we're dealing with; it's about choosing wisely, spending our resources on what matters most and being aware of our limits.
Reminding myself of that on a regular basis is as good a New Year's resolution as any. Happy New Year!