Minimalism vs Excess

While I enjoy visiting what I call "girlie" blogs, I also temper it by visiting some very good "minimalist" blogs.  I do that in order to keep perspective on the important things in life.  It's really ok to have collections.  I've certainly had my fair share over the years.  It's a fun diversion and can often lead into a career or a life-long hobby.  And surrounding yourself with pretty things is ok, too. It's part of what makes us human.  It's when we become attached to the "stuff'" of life that we become a bit off-kilter.  

I remember when my Mom dropped off all her china, silver, and crystal at my house eons ago.  She said, "Here - you take care of it for awhile."  I thought she had lost her mind.  Now that I am older, her reasoning seems perfectly sound. 

One way I practice detachment  to my "stuff" is by giving it away. Yep, you heard me correctly.  If someone comes to my house and absolutely loves some little decorative item, I give it to them.  I figure if they love it that much they should "take care of it for awhile." 

Becoming Minimalist is a blog I visit everyday.  Yesterday's post how to stop letting advertisers control your life is excellent. 

[...]the goal of Madison avenue is to increase our desire – to change our attitude from “that’s extravagant” to “that would be nice” to “I really need that” and finally to “I’ve got to have it.” They are so subtle at their craft that we hardly realize we are being brainwashed.  Subconsciously, they take control of our desires, our checkbooks, and our life. read the rest

Zen garden at Dartington

Slow Down and Think

We live in such a rushed and busy world now that we seldom have time to just think.  We even do it to our kids - shuffling them from one activity after another.  We don't give them time to just lay in the grass and stare at the clouds.

That's one of the reasons I've gone back to writing "morning pages" and doing my spiritual reading as soon as I get up in the morning.  It's usually when we are quiet that the best idea's just pop into our heads - those wonderful "light bulb moments."  And that's what happened in a quiet moment last week.

We have Clematis that grow up the side of our deck on a trellis.  I pull them through the trellis and by mid-summer they cover the entire underside of the half roof on our deck.  It's wonderful to have breakfast there with the beautiful purple flowers hanging over your head.  

The problem was pulling the vines through the trellis since the holes were rather small.  And then the light bulb lit up.  Why not cut the top off the trellis making a larger opening?  Well, duh!!  That was pretty simple.  So hubby headed out with his little saw, hacked off the top of the trellis and added a board for stability.  After all the summers of dealing with that vine, I never slowed down enough to "see" the solution.  

Here is the trellis after hubby sawed off the top.  I made the hanging trellis on the ceiling  out of bamboo.

 As you can see the outside of the trellis is quite tall and I would have to get a large step stool to reach the top of the vine to push it through.  Now I will be able to reach out from the inside and just pull them in. How cool is that??  As soon as it's warmer the new board will get painted (as well as the whole house.) I love to paint!

It's hard to believe those little brown twigs you can see at the bottom of the deck will turn into a HUGE vine covered in flowers.  It got so big that we actually had to remove one of the Clematis.  It's been transplanted on the side of the little tool shed. 

This is the Clematis last year in very early June.  It is starting across the ceiling and along the whole front of the roof.  It will continue to bloom for the whole summer.

The flowers are huge - 5 -6" across and dangle over your head like big purple stars.

Do you need to slow down and think about something?