I came across a quote today that stopped me in my tracks:
“The essence of all purification is self-simplification; the doing away of the unnecessary and unreal, the tangles and complications of consciousness” Richard of St. Victoria 12th Century
This may take awhile to unpack, but the phrase “self-simplification” drew me into it. What exactly is it? As I sit in my prayer/art room, I must ask – do I need all this stuff? Have you ever done that?
Decluttering is trending right now. Books, videos, how-to’s, but I wonder if there must first be internal simplicity? Can you really order your external world when there is chaos inside you? And what are factors that create and maintain that inner chaos?
Trauma is presently the chief reason given for most problems. “This happened to me, therefore I behave this way today.” However, this paralyzing mindset holds us in the chaos of clutter and the prison of procrastination. What if we could just say, I want a simpler life? What if the truth was, that within our powerful spirits we are united to the One who brought order out of cosmic chaos. And because of this union, we can bring order with uncomplicated simplicity into every area of our lives?
But how? Practically speaking, how?
Simplicity isn’t a negative. It isn’t just about what you get rid of. It’s also about what you keep, what you value.
So, let’s begin by making two lists. (I love lists) #1 What we would like our internal environment to feel like and #2 what we would like our external environment to look like.
I’ll share my lists in my next post!
