Do I really need all this stuff?

When we come back home from a peaceful walk in the forest and we begin to feel stressed again we can begin to question, ‘do I really need all this stuff?’

​In my family it was a tradition to get together sometimes and have a big purge of the house to get rid of anything we did not need or want anymore and create some space. The cupboards and drawers would start to overflow with stuff and we would know it was time. It was always difficult  at the beginning. There would be so many memories associated with everything, 

‘Aunty Dorrie gave us this’ or ‘do you remember the day...’

As the purge went on, however, we would begin to see the space and order we were creating and start to enjoy the process. There was a great relief to being free of all the clutter. 

If we let go of things more and more this sense of relief, of freedom can become paramount and we get bolder and bolder in what we get rid of or give away. 

We can start to incline towards simplicity, our living room goes Zen. We start painting everything white. We build a tree house in the garden. We delete our Facebook account. We look at the stars at night. We have space in our life. We are happy in a completely new way.

This is the joy of renunciation. It goes a very, very long way…

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​I offer this for your reflection

Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk