It all started when I came to realise that "trying harder" wasn't the solution.
I was lost in the forest and all I could see was trees...but no way out.
I was spending too much time cleaning, washing and maintaining my stuff which was frustrating me no end. I would often hesitate to invite friends over at the spur of the moment because It would mean a few hours of tidying up.
"I have to try harder," I would say to myself. If I am just a little more organised I can beat this. It did not work. After a cleaning spree the house would survive one or two days before the downward spiral into chaos once again overwhelmed me.
The ironic thing is that I am a writer and I can't work when the house is a mess. As a result if the house was untidy I would feel as creative or as motivated as a rock on the beach. This had to end. I wanted to continue to pursue my passion for writing, travelling and living life and my stuff was getting in the way of it all. My creative juices were being sucked up by the sponge of consumerism and abundance.
Primarily I wanted to prune down my life and simplify it so that I could pour my life and energies into that which was more worthwhile. To do that, there had to be a change and I knew it had to be a change at the very core of my being.
And so the journey began. Some would call what I seek idealistic, others have already achieved their goal of living a minimalistic life. To those who thrive on material gain, what I am doing will seem pointless and confusing. This is my personal struggle with letting go of the things that weigh me down.
There have been those who have guided me on this path and as I go forward I will share with you what I learn from them. Everyone's journey is different.
One day I tweeted a few of these mentors.
"When I reach my goal of living in minimalism, I'm buying myself the ultimate symbol of minimalism, a bonsai."Julien Smith's reply was:
"The ultimate irony."
At first I laughed at the irony. And then it hit me....
Here I was stuck in the forest, when I yearned for the simplicity of one lone bonsai. Suddenly I knew where I was going and how I was going to get there.
Joshua Becker, who has been a tremendous inspiration welcomed me into the minimalist fold by saying:
"Melony. You'll love intentionally living with less. Let me know how we can help in your journey."
With support like that, how could I fail?
Another person I greatly admire is Joshua Fields Millburn and when I gave him a mini progress report on my beginnings of this journey, his reply was: "That's outstanding. Congrats."
So it is with the support I will need that I venture into my quest to go from overwhelming forest to simple bonsai.
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