Planning Tomorrow

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.”

-Karen Lamb

    If I had the chance to change the calendar, I would move January to the Spring. As we come out of Winter hibernation, nature and people seem to filled with new life. We have more energy, are a little happier, and plan all kinds of interesting things for the season - gardening anyone? It seems to me then, that Spring would be the perfect time for January and New Year resolutions.
   
    Yet January happens to be in the Winter. In the coldest and darkest time of the year. And this is the time when we’re expected to come up with New Year resolutions! No wonder so many of us don’t keep up with our decisions past a few weeks.

    However, I still believe this is a good time for general life planning. With the Holidays now pretty much behind, we can focus on the year ahead. And in the quietness of Winter there is a great opportunity for soul searching and reflection. To stop and think.

    Take a few moments to look deep into your life. Is it headed in the direction you want? As human beings with free choice we have, to a great extent, the power to decide where our lives are going to go. Think for example about your financial situation, your health, your relationships, your schedule, and your home environment as these have a big impact on your well being. How satisfied are you with these areas of your life?

    If you are content with the course your life is taking then resolve to make it even better. To grow and learn more. To deepen your relationship with God and become a better you. We all have plenty of room for improvement. At the same time enjoy the fruit of the much you have accomplished. It’s ok to sit back and relax. You should not be constantly on the go.

    If you examine your life and decide that is headed the wrong way, then it’s time to put on the breaks and make a U-turn! Time to take a different road. You can either start by making small easy changes, or you can take the bull by its horns and make it go the other way.

    Whatever the outcome of the New Year know this: God’s mercies are new every morning. Every morning! Not just once a year when we make New Year resolutions. Not once a month or every two weeks when we get our paychecks. No! His mercies are new every morning. This means that every day we have the opportunity to start fresh. To turn the page and write a new chapter. With God, every day is a great day for a new you!

    My plan for the coming year is to totally dive in into the abundant life God has promised. I don't know the details of this journey, but I’m trusting the Driver. As part of it, this blog is undergoing some big transformations that I just can't wait to share with you! In it I'll tell you all I've learned and will learn about abundant living and encourage you to join in on the journey.
    
    We were promised an abundant life. Not a mediocre or poor quality life. Abundant life! All of us. Let’s grab that promise and make it ours today!    

   Abundant life, here we come!

The People In Our Lives

 "Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. 

We have only today. Let us begin."

-Mother Theresa

    This December has been difficult. Among other important dates, it marks my parents’ wedding anniversary. They would have celebrated 45 years of marriage.

    Would have…

    This year the celebration was different. I reminisced on their tender love story and remembered longingly the blessing they were in my life. The date now marks a day that was, a day filled with beautiful memories of the two people who gave me life.

    Then there are the Holidays. Like others around the world, these past days have been filled with many preparations. Because I’ve spent the last few years simplifying my life, I must confess that this season has been more enjoyable. I’ve been able to make my own Christmas greeting cards, spend time in the kitchen creating traditional Portuguese delicacies, read and re-read every greeting card received either via snail mail or electronically, wrapped carefully chosen gifts for those I love, and have enjoyed many quiet moments reading the story of Christmas. What a love God has for us, I just can’t comprehend it. But it has been nice to just enjoy this season without the usual stress.

    However, in the midst of all the joy and cheer I also feel sadness. Sadness that for the first time in my life I don’t get to share all of this excitement with my mother. Living countries apart, we would spend hours sharing every little detail of our days with each other, and Holidays were an exciting time. What an unbelievable emptiness her death left in my life, words can’t simply explain.

    My first Christmas as an orphan of mother and father...

    But God, who does not waste our pain, has been helping me see past my grief into deeper truths. And from where I stand I am strongly reminded of what is most important in this one life we’ve been given. So I see an opportunity. An opportunity to once again learn that the most important in this world are the people who were given to be part of our lives. An opportunity to learn and put into practice what I’m learning.

    You see, tomorrow the greetings cards will have been read, the food will have been eaten, and the presents unwrapped. Christmas will have come and gone and our attention directed to the next big thing. Time constantly moving forward causing tomorrow to become yesterday.

    What hopefully won’t have changed, though not guaranteed, are the people with whom we share all of this with. The people whom God placed in our lives to shape us and be influenced by us. In the midst of all the activity of the season, the people are what truly matters.

    Take a moment to think of your circle of influence. Who are the people in it? Your spouse, given to be your life partner and best friend. Show them how much you appreciate them. Your children, given for you to guide and love. Show them how proud you are of the persons they are. Your parents, given to guide and love you. Show how much you love them by giving them your time, attention, and respect. Your family and your friends, incredible blessings from God. What about your enemies? Used by God to teach you grace and forgiveness. Forgive them. Or perhaps you’re the one in need of forgiveness. Ask for it. How beautiful are restored relationships. What about your neighbors and the stranger you see often in the street?

    Remember also yourself, uniquely created by a loving God. Blessed with life, talents, and gifts to be used in the service of God and of others. What a treasure you are.

    How often we ignore others and ourselves.

    We won’t be in each others’ lives forever. That is the reality of life in this world. So let’s make the best of the time we’re given together! What about beginning today, now, by closing your computer and all other electronic devices and go spend precious time connecting with your loved ones? Show how much you love and appreciate them.
    
    I’m going to do the same.

    Merry Christmas!

The Letter

“Time going by fast is an opportunity to refocus on what is most important in life.”

- my mother

I was going through some of the things I brought from my mom’s house that I want to organize into a legacy scrapbook. There are letters between her and my dad, poems, old documents, pictures, and several other things. Reminders of a beautiful story that transformed this world into a better place. 

Among those papers I found a letter that my mom wrote to me and my siblings shortly after my dad had passed away. She was trying to decide the direction we should take as a family after such a loss, and wrote us a letter filled with love, encouragement, guidance, and wisdom. What a treasure I found! 

One of the things my mom wrote was how fast time was passing by. It had been three months since my father had died and we were going through a major life change with a possible international move ahead of us. What’s interesting is that my mother said time going by fast was a good thing. This caught me by surprise as we usually see time flying by as something negative. When time speeds through, we believe we don’t have the opportunity to do the many things we feel we have to do. 

From my mom’s perspective though, the realization that time was going by fast was an opportunity to refocus on what was most important in life.

Like many families, we were preoccupied with daily life, our jobs, school, meals, home management, vacations, and the many things that filled our days. But all seemed so unimportant after losing my father. We learned that  the plans we humans make are subject to changes and interruptions, and the things that we spend our lives running after and desire to possess, have little true value after all.

I was barely out of my teen years when my dad died. Although I learned important truths at that time, this desire to focus on what’s most important didn’t happen personally until a few years ago God took me on an adventure to the Last Frontier, Alaska. More specifically when we purchased a little home out in the woods. It was there, for the first time ever away from city life and in the quietness of the forest, that my eyes were opened to the amazing benefits of a simple life focused on what matters most.

I was sharing with friends the benefits of a simple life and how liberating it was when one of them asked me to help her simplify a room in her house. She explained that among other things, the room had boxes of stuff from when she had moved into her house 10 years ago. I told her I would be happy to help, as long as she knew that I had absolutely no attachment to her stuff. Her eyes opened up wide and with fear she began telling me what she absolutely could not depart with. In the end the room saw little change. 

I don’t blame her. We all get attached to things. A while back I almost gave my wedding dress to a friend who was getting married. The dress is timeless and beautiful, and similar to what she was looking for. It had been in a box since I had gotten married, so I offered my friend to try it out. I was delighted it could be put to good use. All was well until I saw her with the dress on. All of a sudden my attachment to it became too strong and I just couldn’t give it away. This story could’ve had a happy ending, with a bride walking down the aisle with that beautiful dress. Instead the dress went back inside the box and stored in the garage where it still lives to this day, a reminder that I still have a lot to learn. How sad. 

It’s so difficult to get rid of our stuff because we put our hearts and soul into it. We must however, change our relationship with these objects. We have held on so tight to all these things, that now we are over-worked, stressed out, and sick just trying to maintain them. We have become slaves of our stuff. Its time to free ourselves! 

The reality is that these plastic, wooden, or metal objects we love so much, don’t love us back. The clothes we so much like, could care less about us. The things we are so strongly attached to have no feelings toward us. My love for my wedding dress is not reciprocated. 

What society tells will bring us happiness is wrong. All the stuff we’ve been buying and bringing into our lives is causing more stress than happiness. It may bring temporary fun, but not happiness.

Its time to move forward! Time to let go of what’s enslaving us, the things that keep us down and distracted. Time to run for freedom, pursue peace, and start living an abundant life. Time to invest in you and in the people who are part of you.

As my mom counseled me and my siblings in that letter written so many years ago, the way to achieve this abundant life is by focusing on the bright and beautiful future God has for us. With that as our focus, we will begin to see the things of this world for what they truly are. As having no value, temporary, and of no relevant importance. Then slowly our eyes will be opened to what has true worth. 

   
    

Hunting Down Peace

      "Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth."

Menachem Begin

    
    Peace…This word has been in my mind a lot lately. 

    If we look at the world around us we can tell there is less and less peace and more and more turmoil. Just recently I attended a workshop on what to do during an active shooting situation. How sad that this is something we need to learn, but it’s the reality of life in this planet.
    
     Most of us want to live peaceful lives and the Bible does counsel us to seek peace and pursue it. (Psalm 43:14.) What does it mean to pursue? The dictionary defines pursue as to follow (someone or something) in order to catch or attack them. We are to seek peace, catch it, and make it ours! How can we do that?
    
     A few years ago I began a journey to live a more simple life, free from the many distractions that are constantly trying to get my attention. Although initially forced on me and though not always easy, it has been a very rewarding experience. Besides getting rid of many of my belongings, God has led me to let go of other things besides stuff. One of them was the daily news. I used to catch up on the news morning and evening. I wanted to know what was going on in the world. However, after the last US presidential elections, I became fatigued with my twice daily routine of catching up on the news. I realized that I was putting on my shoulders problems that I could not solve. I was worrying about things that were out of my control and that were distracting me from most important aspects of my life.
    
     I am so glad I did this. My life has been so much more calm. I don’t know how I would’ve survived this past year, if I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders on top of everything else I’ve been going through.
    
     Often peace comes as that inner calm we receive from God when the world is falling apart around us, and other times He encourages us to let go of things that are getting in the day of that peace. 
    
     Each one of us has a different journey. Examine yours and see if there is anything that is robbing you of peace. Often the objects that inhabit our homes cause us to feel stressed out. If this is your case, then it’s time to purge your living space from all the extra stuff. But you may also have to purge from your life other things such as old habits, toxic relationships, poor health practices, gossiping, old ideas, grudges, hate, and anything that can get in the way of you catching peace and making it yours.
    
     Peace is truly a treasure in this crazy world we live in. Don’t rest until it’s yours. Hunt it down! 
     Live a simple life, do good, seek peace, and pursue it!

 

Gifts to Remember

    "Happiness is only real when shared."

-Jon Krakauer

    Season 4 of Fixer Upper is on hgtv.com. I was so excited when I found out that I wanted to watch all the episodes in a row! Since we don’t have cable, I hadn’t watched the last season of this show. I will, somewhat patiently, wait to see the final season 5.
   
    While watching the show online, I noticed the program was interrupted often for commercials. Since Christmas is just around the corner, most of the commercials are about this season and the many wonderful things I should buy to have a perfect Christmas. I was encouraged to switch cell phone carriers, told I should shop for the perfect toys at a certain store, beautiful clothes at a different one, buy a TV, and a brand new car. If I buy these things, me and my family will have the happy smiles I saw on the TV and thus have a perfect holiday season. If only…
   
    The Holidays are supposedly the happiest time of the year. I think we all know how this time of the year should be, but often the reality is far from it. Super crowded stores, credit card debt, an unrealistic quest for perfection, and an extra amount of stress are what many of us experience during this happy time. A quick Pinterest search on Christmas will tell us the movies to watch, how to decorate our house, the gifts we should give, the best foods to prepare, and the ugliest Christmas sweater to buy.

    But the season will come and go, and if we succumb to the pressures  to buy what we are told will make the perfect Holiday, we may have nothing to show for it except debt and clutter.

    Since presents are a huge part of Christmas, I asked a group of people who are on this journey to de-clutter their homes how they celebrate Christmas. I was needing some ideas. Their answers were great so here’s a list of suggestions for gifts that will make a difference.

Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. - Many people follow this rule when purchasing presents at Christmas and it is a great option to give gifts with a purpose.

Consumables - gifts that we can use without causing more clutter. Examples would be gift cards, lotions, perfume, candles, essential oils, food, calendars, and movie tickets among others.

Charity - you can donate to a favorite charity in someone’s name. I once received this as a gift on Christmas, and it’s one of those few gifts I still remember receiving. ADRA and Samaritan’s Purse have gift catalogs that you can choose where your donation goes to. Fresh water, building schools, planting gardens, or raising farm animals are some examples of how your gift can be used.
Feeding the homeless together as a family at your local soup kitchen or creating gift baskets for families in need are some great options as well. Look for ways to serve. For further inspiration on this, check out what Nancy W. Gavin and her family did.
 
Experiences - A trip to the zoo or local museums, tickets to a game, or a day of skiing. Classes such as music lessons, craft classes, or a writing class. A family trip whether it is just a day trip, a weekend getaway, or even a longer trip later in the year. One person said they were going RVing this Christmas. 
 
Time - One of my favorite answers came from a woman who said she always asked for time with her children. Don’t we all enjoy spending time with our loved ones? In this super fast paced world, the gift of time is probably one of the best! Movies, lunches, dinners, museum visits, hikes, weekend trips, baking cookies, going out for tea/coffee, trying different workout places, taking a class together were some of her suggestions.

    I hope this list will inspire and encourage you when choosing gifts this Christmas. Simplify this Holiday season, enjoy the company of your loved ones, don't go into the debt, look for opportunities to serve, and truly enjoy this happiest time of the year.

Embracing Freedom

"I've learned that nobody's perfect, and I don't expect myself to be perfect anymore."

-Carly Simon

    When I first began this journey to a more simple life, I started reading all kinds of books and blogs of people who had walked this path before me. In my quest I came across the term minimalism and a new world opened up before me. Have you heard of that term? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, minimalism is “a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity.” When this concept is applied to daily living the results can be very interesting. Extreme lifestyles of people whose belongings fit into one small backpack, who had a very restricted amount of monotone clothing in their closets, or pictures of all white almost bare homes flooded my computer.

    During my beginner days as a traveler on this journey to a more simple life, this concept of minimalism encouraged me to simplify a lot. Motivated, I would grab a box and go through the house putting inside everything I didn’t think we needed anymore. Author William Morris once said, “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or beautiful,” and that served as a guide to help me decide what to keep and what to donate. I started putting so much of the house in boxes that I think my family feared they were next. I decided however, that my family is very useful and very beautiful, so I kept them!

    Although minimalism was a catalyst for my journey, I soon realized I didn’t like it very much. At least not to the extreme many people were taking it. There had to be a balance. I just couldn’t sell all my furniture or paint it all white like the pictures I would see. I needed some color in my life and it was ok to keep some things. With time I learned that I needed to eventually slow down on my simplifying, make it more me, and be content with the much I had already accomplished. With that in mind I could enjoy life a little more.

    What I learned was a great truth that I still hold on to today. A simple life is not a perfect life. A simple life is a free life! Free from stuff and materialism. Free from super packed schedules and constant stress. Free from others’ expectations. It’s a free life to enjoy family, friends, and to pursue our God given talents and dreams. A life free to serve and make a real difference in the world around us.

    Thankfully I learned that there are also very balanced minimalists who use minimalism as a tool to a better life. When searching for a more meaningful insight into minimalism, I came across a wonderful article by The Minimalists Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus on what minimalism is:

“Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.”

    Minimalism has definitely been a tool for me. It’s where I began and the freedom I’ve found so far has been amazing. If you believe there has to be more to life than the constant running to and from chasing after the wind and you are ready to embark on this journey to a more simple life, begin by simplifying your belongings. We live in a society that encourages consumerism, so it’s very easy to accumulate stuff,  but take a hard look at what you have and decide what you must keep and what can leave the house. You can either sell, donate, or throw away. Go through your closet. You know what clothes you’re not wearing anymore. Go through your kitchen. That’s a place where it’s easy to have doubles or triples of certain things. What about your decorations? Keep only the ones you really like.

    As you are going through your things, start thinking of what you will do with your new “free” time when you don’t have to use it to constantly clean and organize your home. That can be very motivating. Maybe you’ll start reading more. Maybe you’ll decide to go back to school. Maybe you’ll start spending more time with friends. Perhaps you and your family can begin a weekly game night. What about finally begin exercising? Maybe you can begin volunteering at your favorite charity or you can even start your own. You can use your new found time to enjoy truly meaningful moments with God. Whatever you decide to do, I strongly encourage you to let go of the weight of stuff and embrace an abundant free life.

Resources:
The Minimalists in https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

Choosing an Abundant Life

   

“Life is a matter of choices, 

and every choice you make makes you.” 

—John C. Maxwell

     You've decided that a more simple life sounds wonderful. More time for family and friends, a clutter-free home, more money, and opportunities to grow and do things you enjoy more. So what’s the next step?
   
    Living a more abundant life does not begin by doing a garage sale or donating half of your belongings to charity. It does not begin by emptying your calendar of unnecessary commitments or becoming a master in the art of saying no. It doesn’t begin by planning a trip with your family so you can spend more time together. No. Change happens after one thing and one thing only: choice. As a human being with free choice, you have have to choose change, you have to choose that simple life. Once you've decided this is the way to go, then you can implement change.

   There are a few things that can motivate your decision. Maybe you are feeling unhappy with the materialistic life you find yourself prisoner of. Maybe you're realizing your children are growing and you are missing out on the best of their growing years. Whatever the reason, you have that slightly uneasy feeling that things are not exactly how they should be, so you want to take steps to improve your life.

    You may also be motivated by the fact that you’ve had enough of life in the fast lane. That you’ve had it with sleeping less than the recommended 7-8 hours per night, and that it’s time to move the bags under your eyes to a different zip code. That you’re done working late hours at the office and missing dinner with the family. You must decide that you’ve had it with the clutter in your home and the constant cleaning, organizing, and stuff shuffling.

    I once heard American businessman and motivational speaker Dave Ramsey, speaking on eliminating debt, say that we have to be “sick and tired of being sick and tired” in order to change and become debt free. He was not the first one to say this. Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hammer said this same sentence in 1964 on national TV when talking about the unfair treatment of African Americans in Mississippi. Both personalities in their own way, were tired of how things were going, and wanted to change. And change they did! Just read their stories.

    Whether you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired or you’re just passively wanting to improve your life,  you are finally ready to choose change. For me personally, I had to decide I was done carrying my stuff around from place to place with all our moves in order to begin simplifying my belongings. I also had had enough of frequent colds, allergies, and the nagging gallbladder discomfort in order to change my diet and start filling this one body I’m given with nutritious foods. To simplify my calendar was a more passive choice, but I did it once I realized how it could improve my life. Once the choice to change had been made, it was much easier to carry it through.

    As you read these words, you may be thinking of things that you can improve in your life. As you look around you may notice you can’t see the top of your desk because it’s full of stuff. Or maybe you have your head buried on your phone while your children play alone in the playground. Perhaps you’re just about to add one more thing to your to-do list, or you just realized that the money has ended before the month. In your mind you know it's time for a change and you've decided to choose change. Maybe it’s time to let go of clothes you haven’t used in a long time. Perhaps it’s time to trim your recipe collection or clean your inbox of junk mail. This may be the right time to stop working late at the office. Whatever it is know that abundant living has been promised to you no matter where you live or how old you are, so it's yours to have. Don't allow yourself to be robbed of that promise. Let the journey to a more abundant life begin! It won't be easy, but it will be so worth it!

References:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/remembering-civil-rights-heroine-fannie-lou-hamer-im-sick-and-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired

Simplifying Your Environment

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”  

- William Morris 

     I had been sitting on the floor of my home office working on a scrap booking project busy with my thoughts, when I decided it was time to get a box and go through some of the things that I didn’t need anymore. Once in a while I like to go on a minimization spree through the house as it’s very easy to accumulate stuff. So the empty boxes found a temporary home in my office as I brought things from other parts of the house and placed them inside the boxes. Without even realizing it, soon the floor of the room was full of stuff mixed together with my scrap booking project materials, and the office transformed into a mess. I didn’t think much about it at first as I knew the disorganization was temporary, until one day I felt a stress I hadn’t felt in a long time. I felt stressed not because of my super packed schedule or because of the many difficulties I’d been facing lately. I felt stressed because my home office, which I use daily, all of a sudden was chaotic.
    
     I knew it would be difficult to work in such an environment, so I decided to take action. The boxes found a new temporary home in the garage and will be there until they are full and ready to go to the donation center, and my scrapbooking project, which I know will take me a while to complete, moved to a smaller desk I have in the office. With everything back in place, that all-too-familiar-but-not-missed feeling of stress disappeared. I breathed in deeper. Several years ago I lived with that feeling of stress and chaos constantly, but since I began this journey to simplify my life, which has included minimizing the things I own, that stress has been replaced with a sense of calm in the home. I like it better now and I don’t want to go back!
    
     Do you think our environment matters? Does the environment we live and work in affect us mentally, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually? According to an article on Psychology Today referencing a study by the University of New Mexico, environmental clutter affects us negatively in many ways. Lower sense of well-being, unhealthier eating, poorer mental health, and less efficient thinking are some of the ways we are negatively affected by a cluttered environment. I would add, from personal experience, increase in stress, decrease in productivity, and decrease in energy.
    
     The benefits of a healthy environment are many. Living in a clutter-free environment increases productivity and creativity. Since I cleared my kitchen counters from most appliances, decorations, and what-nots, I am more creative with meals and have a lot more fun inventing new recipes. We eat a lot healthier too. A clutter-free environment gives us a sense of inner peace and less stress. It affects our physical well being as well. Just think of less dust for example. As a clean and germs freak, I love this! Another benefit of a clutter-free environment is less time spent cleaning and organizing, which means more time to use on things that are more important or that we enjoy doing more. For me it has translated into more time with family, with friends, more time serving others, and more time reading and writing.
    
     Why am I sharing all this? My journey to a more simple life began several years ago when moving from Alaska to Texas. We were forced by circumstances to leave behind many of our earthly belongings. Though stressful at the time, looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened as it opened the door to a new path and a more abundant life. This journey began with having fewer material things and it has expanded from there. From my experience, this is the best place to begin. When our environment is free of clutter, there is space for other more important things. Like I said before, I have by no means arrived at the perfect simple life, but I know I’m headed in that direction and the journey has simply been amazing!

     The Bible counsel us to seek and pursue peace (Psalm 34:14). Our environment has a huge weight on our sense of well being and peace. Start by simplifying your surroundings. Look around your home and decide what you don't want anymore and either sell or donate it. Anything that is robbing you of peace and energy must go. I'll share how we did it on a future post, but until then I'd like to encourage you to simplify your life and free it for more abundant living.

Resources:

http://creationhealth.com/CREATION-Health/Environment

https://www.becomingminimalist.com/becoming-minimalist-start-here/
 
The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker.

Taking the Side Road

“It is desirable that a man live in all respects so simply and preparedly that if an enemy take the town... he can walk out the gate empty-handed and without anxiety.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden    

    I don’t know how much more difficult this year would have been if several months ago I hadn’t responded to God’s calling to lead a more simple life. It’s amazing to look back and realize how He has been leading me ever so gently in this journey. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been so worth it.
    
    We live in a very fast paced world. Driving down the interstate last night I could feel the tension of life at high speeds. Why were we all driving so fast? Where was everyone going in such a hurry? Why didn’t I take a side road and gone home at a slower speed and  a more normal heart rate? It feels often that we live life as if driving on the interstate. We speed through our days working on our never ending to do lists. Just today Facebook reminded me of a post I shared a few years ago. In it I said that I needed to finish my to do list quickly so I could go outside and play with my son. Why didn’t I go play first and then worked on that always growing to do list?
 
    So over the years God, who has been trying to do some major remodeling in my life, has been telling me to slow down, and I have. It has been a slow slowing down until the beginning of this year when I think I finally got the message and just went for it. It hasn't been easy because I’ve had to get rid of a lot. I got rid of a lot of stuff, plans, ideas, habits, and a whole lot of myself, but all of that is nothing in comparison to what I’ve gained. I’ve gained less stress, more calm, I’ve gained a cleaner home, opportunities that I hadn’t had before, a smaller waist line, better sleep, more energy, and my favorite, I’ve gained time. Time to use on what is truly important in life, like playing with my son, talking with my husband, serving others, reading, writing, learning, and growing.
    
    I have by no means achieved the perfect simple life yet, but I have tasted it, and it’s delicious, abundant, and I want more of it!
    
    It has been interesting to read my Bible lately with the perspective of a simple life and realize that God has been calling us to it all along. He doesn’t want us to be so busy. He doesn’t want us to be worried. He doesn’t want us to neglect ourselves or our loved ones because of a lack of time. He doesn't want us to be so distracted with our busyness. He wants to give us beautiful abundant lives, and I’m learning that this comes from a simple quiet life focused on Christ.
    
    So today maybe take the side road and slow down a bit. Get home at the end of the day and have a simple supper of steamed vegetables with a side of artisan bread. Maybe leave the cleaning and the shopping for later and play a board game or catch outside with your children. Maybe today you don’t have to get out of bed and quickly have breakfast because lunch is coming in a few hours and we need a healthy amount of time between meals for digestion. Maybe today plan for a brunch and a lupper (word we've made up for a meal later than lunch and earlier than supper.) Then go back to bed and enjoy your family’s company and bed hair, all wrapped in the warm covers, while talking and laughing about nothing and everything. And that’s exactly what I did…

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

- Hans Hofmann

Desiring a Simple Life

    I met two friends for lunch and the conversation quickly turned towards the desire to live a more simple life. We talked about our busy schedules, extra curricular activities, the demands of life, and the large houses my friends had purchased a few years ago. We talked about their expensive mortgages, the time spent cleaning, and how they wished they had made a different decision. One of them mentioned that the move up to a larger home had not been what she expected, and now she was planning on simplifying. We all agreed that life is too complicated. A simple life… sounds wonderful!
    As we talked I began to think back at my own journey towards a more simple life. It all began when I got the opportunity of spending five summers and winters in the beautiful state of Alaska. After two years living in town, we decided it was time to move out of the city and live as Alaskan as possible. So we purchased a home in the middle of the woods, where friendly chickadees, moose, fox, and shy bears became our neighbors. The house was small, but our five acres bordered public land, so we literally had hundreds of acres of Alaskan wilderness to discover and explore.
    During our time there, I learned to slow down and enjoy a different pace of life. One can’t start a fire to warm up the house in a hurry, and getting out the door in the winter required several extra minutes to get all the snow gear and warm clothes on. Plus there is no way to enjoy the northern lights in just a couple of minutes. One must linger for a while looking up at the night sky, while green, red, white, and sometimes purple lights slowly dance in the sky above. Also, what to do when the temperatures go below freezing, but to head indoors and spend time with family and friends while eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate?
    I had been a city dweller for as long as I can remember, living in close proximity to people, with little outdoor space to explore. Alaska was a completely new experience for me, especially after we moved to our little house in the woods. It was there that I gained a deep love for nature and a passion for birdwatching. It was there that I learned to truly appreciate the beautiful natural world God had created and look at my surroundings with different eyes. We would often go for hikes, sometimes to explore a frozen pond near the house, others to find a stream slowly crossing the wide landscape, and yet others to simply enjoy the fresh air and the soft forest floor. I enjoyed all sorts of wild berries that I used in my kitchen in home made delicacies. I would sit on my porch listening to the gentle rain that would fall for many hours during the warmer months, or soak up in the sun in the summer, or wrap myself up in a warm blanket, and watch the northern lights silently dance the night away. Summers were active enjoying the midnight sun, when the state gets filled with flowers and tourists, and the vegetables grow to uncommonly large sizes. When time came to move out of the Last Frontier, we were forced to leave behind many of our belongings and with that it was added to my journey towards simple living, a life with less stuff.
    The fact is that a simple life has many benefits. More time with family and friends, less time cleaning and organizing; more time learning new things, less time worrying. More time to fulfill our dreams and spend time on what is truly important. I like this and I desire more of it.
    After lunch, me and my friends all agreed that we should strive for simplicity, and each left with the desire and a plan to build a better life for us and our family. Now that I’m back living in the city, I want to remember the things learned in Alaska and live a simple life even here. I got home, grabbed a large bag, and started going through some of my things I know I don’t need. Then I looked at my calendar and to do list, and came up with a plan to simplify the rest of the week.

 

Life Redecorating

    This afternoon I visited my local library and spent much needed quiet time browsing through some of their magazines and searching for some books I’ve been wanting to read. As I sat down in one of the plush chairs available, I dreamed of the places described in the current edition of the Sunset magazine I was looking through. Pictures of big sequoias, sea glass gathered during a morning walk on the beach, meadows of wild flowers, and beautiful mountain settings flooded my mind with the desire to escape to nature, somewhere. I looked up from the magazine to the outside landscape on the other side of the floor to ceiling windows. From my position, I could see a beautiful green lawn decorated with several trees full of busy little birds, and the majestic mountains in the distance that covered the east. I took in the scenery before me for a few moments when all of a sudden I realized that the library computers had been placed along all the big windows. Why oh why were the computers facing that beautiful view when the users will never look at the landscape on the other side of the screen? I believe there needs to be some redecorating on the library. Move the computers somewhere else, and in front of the windows place instead comfortable chairs to sit down with a good book while looking at the mountains in the distance.
    I thought for a moment about our lives and how cluttered often it is with things that hide the beautiful views around us. When I say views, I’m not just talking about looking at nature, though I believe that’s important, but also of people, relationships, plans, and goals for the future. Sometimes we’re so busy with the things around us now, that we don’t see what is truly important and what will give us the abundant life God desires for us. Just think about the typical family or group of friends going to a restaurant all busy each with their cell phones, when right in front and around them, are amazing people to get connected with, relationships to be nourished, and dreams to be shared.
    We need to regularly take a break from our busyness in order to evaluate our priorities and reset the life button. Someone once told me when talking about working extra hours, that there is no money that can buy our peace. Perhaps the extra hours at the office are not worth it if our family is living family life on their own without us. Perhaps the many hours on the couch watching TV are not worth it if it means our waist lines are growing bigger and we are getting sicker. Maybe it’s not that important to spend mindless minutes on Facebook if that means our children are being ignored and our dreams are being left behind.
    We are given one life and one life only. There may be many incredible experiences we may be missing because the view is covered by our daily busyness, just like the amazing view outside the library windows was covered by the row of computers. I believe it’s time for some redecorating! Life redecorating that is.

Super Immunity - a review

    

I’m sitting here in front of the computer writing this about 10 pounds lighter than I was a few months ago, and I wasn’t even looking to loose weight. Just this past week I lost two more pounds. Clothes that were set aside for donation have been brought back out and I’m wearing them again. I had just cleaned my closet and was going to donate several items, but I think I may have to do some reorganizing and donate the clothes I thought I was going to keep instead!
    Loosing weight has been nice, but it was never my intended initial goal. I had a different purpose when I first embarked on this journey, one of the many God has been putting before me. Maybe it’s all part of the same journey, just with different stops along the way, and this has been a fantastic stop.
    You see, several months ago I was introduced to a book by Dr. Joel Furhman titled Super Immunity. As I started reading it I could not put it down! In fact, I have read it three times already. I wanted to absorb every word, wanted to learn it all, and wanted to check if what the author was saying was really true. There is a lot of evidence based information with references to many health studies, and I checked several of them to see if I would get from the studies the same conclusions as Dr. Fuhrman.
    The book talks about building a body that is as disease proof as possible. It goes on to explain how the Standard American Diet (SAD) provides hardly any of the nutrients our bodies require for optimum health. We have been so focused on macronutrients such as protein, carbs, and fats, that we forget the extremely important immunity building micronutrients.
    The book made a lot of sense and it seemed easy to follow. I had learned before that a plant-based diet was the best for us, but never truly understood how to rip the most benefits from such a diet. Having been a vegetarian all my life, I thought I was pretty healthy and ate well. However, small little things started changing in my health, making me think that maybe my immune system was not as strong as it could be. Frequent colds, allergies, dermatitis, and the new increasingly strong pain on my right abdomen that radiated to my back and up my shoulders made me realize that my body was complaining about something. I stumbled about Super Immunity at just the right time.
    The book strongly encourages a plant-based diet, although it does give guidelines if one prefers to include animal protein in their nutrition, but the author goes a lot further than just promoting a more natural nutrition. He literally explains why, how, when, and what to eat and makes it simple to follow. What captivated me the most about the book is that it made a lot of sense!!
    I wanted to tell the world what I’d learned, but I decided to see for myself if the principles shared were true. I began avoiding all processed food and began eating large quantities of fresh and cooked vegetables and fruits every day. If I needed to fill my body with good nutrition, I needed to eat lots of foods that would give me the macro and micro nutrients I need. The author uses the term G-BOMBS to explain the foods we should be consuming the most: Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries and seeds. This was not a diet, a temporary fix, or a fad. This was a lifestyle change. Dr. Furhman uses the term nutritarian, for those who eat as he recommends. I was going to become a nutritarian for a while and see what would happen.
    The first few days were not easy as Dr. Fuhrman had predicted would happen. I cut most of sugar, oils, and decreased the amount of salt intake. My stomach would hurt and I had no energy. Such was the process of detoxification. I knew this was going to happen, so I was somewhat mentally prepared, but those first few days were not very pleasant at all. Yet I continued eating very healthy, drinking plenty of fresh water, and filling this body I had been given with large quantities of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds. After a while I began feeling better until I was feeling great! All of a sudden I had a ton of energy so much so that eventually I had to start exercising. In less than two weeks I lost six pounds, and that uncomfortable pain on my right side began decreasing until I didn’t feel it anymore.
    One of the many amazing things about a nutritarian lifestyle, is that by eating right, one can eat large amounts of food and not gain any weight. In fact, we loose weight. I eat huge bowls of delicious salads or soups, and the next day the scale will notify me of more weight lost. I’m also never hungry as the foods are filled with fiber and healthy nutrients that keep me full and satisfied, sometimes even until the next day. This lifestyle is not restrictive at all and I don’t have to count calories, weigh my food, or cut on carbs.
    Although I like the weight loss, the best of all is that the abdominal pain I had been experiencing, (which I believe was a sign that my gallbladder was going to need to come out) is completely gone! I used to have sinus problems and would often be bothered by allergies, but I noticed recently I haven’t had any allergies this summer. I used to have occasional flare ups of itchy dermatitis on my hands, and just last week I realized that I haven’t had a flare up in months! My mind is also clearer and I have a lot more energy. Sometimes I have so much energy that I have to go jump on the trampoline or go for a jog. However, all these health benefits have happened simply from the way I eat and not from exercise. I am loving this lifestyle!
    I have a friend with whom I had been sharing some of my findings with, who decided to give it a try as well. He began changing the way he eats and has lost so much weight that he had to go buy a whole new wardrobe. His energy levels have increased in such a way that he now jogs every day. Another friend who I’ve talked about this has been dealing with diabetes and high blood pressure for several years and is on multiple medications. Although she’s not 100% committed to a nutritarian lifestyle, she has noticed that when she eats this way, she does not need as much insulin.
    These are just some of the results me and two close friends have personally experienced. There are multiple others I have met along this journey who have shared how they are off all kinds of medications, who have been told they no longer have diabetes, who have overcome depression, autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and even certain forms of cancer.
    These past few months have been quite the journey, but I’m so glad I came across Super Immunity. It has been life changing. This way of eating is very enjoyable, tasty, and simple to prepare. I understand in this world a long healthy life is not a guarantee even with the healthiest lifestyle, but I must say it has been a most pleasant journey trying.