This post entry (below) about the need to de-clutter and pondering exactly what it might be like to loose everything and start over is something I’ve been wondering about myself. Form what I know of a zen lifestyle and by that I mean the life of a zen monk one of the things they do (correct me if I’m wrong) and I believe this happens in another religion, is to forego all worldly possessions.

It’s not unusual for people to loose everything they own in a fire for example - in fact I met someone recently who had that happen just a couple of months back, yet they ’survive’ and by this I mean that regardless of the loss of all their possession they continue with their lives quite well in most cases. It IS possible to continue and live a great life after such a disaster, WHY? because all that stuff doesn’t really matter, in the overall scope of life the universe and everything things are meaningless in and of themselves, any meaning they have is what we chosse to give them.
This of course means that we can choose to change the meaning associated with something from positive to negative and (preferrably) vice versa. It also means that if we loose something that we can choose to be ok with that and not mourn the loss for the rest of our lives. This then means that we can also choose to actively remove things from our lives by choosing to let go of the associated meaning.
Now I’m not saying that we should get rid of every item regardless of a deep sentimental attachment but I would question that if an item can illicit a strong emotional response for you then why is it shoved in the back of a closet? Conversely if you take more than 20 seconds to think of a reason to keep something then it’s questionable that it has any meaning whatsoever, if so why keep it?

When we take a hard look at our possessions then take a look at the life of someone in a third world country what’s the difference? apart from the obvious! They have very little but they survive without all the stuff. This begs the questions, what do we really need? Food, shelter, each other? really the rest is icing! and I don’t know about you but just how much of the icing of those over dressed wedding cakes actually gets eaten - it doesn’t! it’s just sickening excess ‘pretties’ stuff that we really don’t need.

Here’s what Susan L says on her blog post

I sometimes think that if our house burned down and we lost everything, it wouldn’t really be that horrible. I’d miss the family heirlooms and journals and photos, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. In fact, I think, in some ways, I would feel a sense of relief, with a chance to start fresh, an opportunity to simplify without getting rid of some “special” thing. (Not that I, at all, want a disaster like a fire to happen…)

And then I think, if we really were put in a position to start from scratch, how would I want to approach setting up a new home? Without a doubt, I’d want to keep everything simple and lovely and useful. I’d want a smaller scale home and yard to begin with, and then I’d want to buy quality items, waiting patiently for each new thing until we could get what we really want. I wouldn’t want much around me. Lots of light and space. Coziness is important to me, but coziness doesn’t require clutter. It’s more about personal taste and making a place real.

I wonder if there is a way to sort of start over, to re-establish something near to that basic simplicity? Why should disaster have to strike for me to find the basic, simple, uncluttered space that so appeals to me?