Center Family Dwelling at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. Photo by Tom Allen via Wikipedia.
‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free ‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, ‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained, To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed, To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.
“Simple Gifts” is a Shaker song written and composed in 1848, generally attributed to Elder Joseph Brackett from Alfred Shaker Village.
I’m on a quest to simplify things.
As in, I simply didn’t write every day last week. I tried, but in the end I didn’t think missing a day would hurt you that much.
Did it? Be honest.
Not to bore you with details, but I continue the work of redoing my home office. My initial plan was to take care of it all the week between Christmas and New Year’s. For reasons I may or may not have mentioned, and that aren’t worth repeating either way, I didn’t make it.
Over the weekend, I more or less finished the project. That includes assembling three sets of IKEA shelves. The hardest part of that was actually getting the pieces upstairs by myself. But, they’re done. Not perfect. But done.
And, also full.
Saturday, I started putting things back in the office. Everything would have a proper place.
But there was just so much stuff.
So. Much. Stuff.
That makes me think I don’t want to keep it all. I’ve promised myself to weed through it all but, with apologies to Marie Kondo, a lot of this crap actually does spark joy.
Still, how much of it to I really need?
To paraphrase Navin R. Johnson in The Jerk…”I don’t need anything…except this book…and this photo…and this…I need this…”
On a complete side note, I just started watching Steve Martin (and Martin Short and Selena Gomez) in Only Murders in the Building, over the weekend. My only regret is not watching sooner.
Back to the office. It’s time to be brutal.
I started thinking about all of this when I realized that, eventually, someone will have to move the bookshelves out, and it won’t likely be me.
At some point in the future, when the boys are settled in their homes and careers and when the current livestock have crossed the rainbow bridge, we’re downsizing anyway.
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I’m on a quest to simplify things.
