Simplicity

We visited Shaker Village while we were in Kentucky this November.  The beauty and simplicity of that time and place are still haunting me.  Stunning colors.  Clean lines.  Everyday objects turned into art as the sun shines just right...

 

And this post.  I can't get it out of my head.  This is what I want for winter.  I've been mulling it over for weeks... this beautiful idea of simplicity.  Everywhere I turn there is much.  My things.  The boys' toys.  The rest of the family's belongings.  Marketing noise.  Holiday extravagance.  Gluttonous amounts of food.  I almost want to shout, "enough!".  Because, really, we already have enough.  But I still find myself adding things to my wish list.  I savor one bite too many of some American treat.  I read about getting rid of all the toys and I am tempted to join her madness.   But then wonder if I really have the courage to do something so brazen. 

When will my head and my heart agree?  How do I echo Paul, who said "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." (Philippians 4:12)?  Where is the line between appreciating every good gift He gives, and clamoring for more?

I am looking forward to the arrival of our sweet baby girl in the next 6 weeks- a forced retreat from the hectic schedule- a reduction of life to bare essentials.{Remind me of this in about 8 weeks}  I hope that it is a sweet exhaustion- a beautiful sacrifice-  a joyous celebration of life at its purest. 

I really do believe less is more.  That every home needs some empty spaces, some visual rest.  I miss that about our home in Uganda.  And yet, I am here filling up tote after tote with things I think I can't live without.   It is a struggle.  But a beautiful one, where I hope to find the right balance for me, my family and our home. 

Where do you land on the simplicity spectrum?  Are you already overwhelmed by the holiday marketing?  Black Friday?  How do you set limits?