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You are here: Home / Archives for minimalism

minimalism

Countdown New Zealand Day 12

05/25/2020 by John Leave a Comment

This is a series of posts that will log some of my thoughts in the month leading up to my moving back to New Zealand.

Cape Romano, Florida

Like drops of water on a heating skillet, the piles of things scattered across the floors of the house are finally beginning to coalesce. If only they would just evaporate. Most of it I don’t need or even want. But there is attachment. A gift from a trusted friend. Letters from a past life lover. Wedding presents long-stored but never displayed or utilized. Art projects that remind me of how creative I once was.

I read about people who live with very little, even going so far as to erase the hard drives of their computers once a year so that they can start fresh. I know that living lightly brings me joy and freedom. These objects merely reinforce a sense of self that is constantly in motion despite the constraints they attempt to impose on it. They represent a me that is no longer me.

I want to let the waves of change wash this sense of self away, as they inevitably will despite the efforts I make to stop them. I want to be able to shift and change like the shoreline, the storms radically reshaping me, and the calm winds of summer smoothing my contours again. But the self is a beach house, standing in defiance as the waves methodically wash its foundations out from under it.

Filed Under: Mindfulness Tagged With: Countdown New Zealand, mindfulness, minimalism, New Zealand

Countdown New Zealand Day 15

05/22/2020 by John Leave a Comment

This is a series of posts that will log some of my thoughts in the month leading up to my moving back to New Zealand.

I picture us living in a small home with a decent sized yard on the outskirts of a small town in New Zealand. From the windows, we look out at the mountains framed by a brilliant blue sky. It is a simple life. We rent out some space of some sort to people traveling through and in this way stay connected to the larger world. There is a garden that allows us to produce much of the fresh food that we need. We diligently can and freeze the excess for the colder months. Every morning we go down the street for a coffee and read books from the local library. When we have free time we drive the van out to the beach. We deepen our practices: meditation, yoga, journaling.

Money? We don’t need much. Just enough.

Doesn’t all that sound nice? And yet, once again I look to an imagined future for my salvation instead of the present moment. The only relief to be found is right here, right now. It is in the hum of the refrigerator, the taste of my coffee, and the feel of the breath moving in and out of my body.

My tendency is to look outside of myself for comfort. If only I had this. When I achieve that. When I meet the right person. All of this, a fool’s errand. And though I know this to be true, I still default to having my eyes set firmly on the horizon instead of on the ground on which I stand.

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Mindfulness Tagged With: Countdown New Zealand, mindfulness, minimalism, New Zealand

Countdown New Zealand Day 31

05/06/2020 by John Leave a Comment

This is a series of posts that will log some of my thoughts in the month leading up to my moving back to New Zealand.


Plane tickets have been purchased. We are moving back to New Zealand. If all goes as planned, we will be on the ground there this time next month. It all seems hard to believe. So far away and yet so close. The pressure to start packing up is mounting. I’m looking forward to sloughing off a lot of the baggage I’ve been carrying around for years, but the question is will I? When it comes down to the wire, will I finally put that threadbare t-shirt imbued with memories of a race long since run into the trash or will I simply be able to let the thoughts remain as I let the object go? I’m about to find out.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Countdown New Zealand, minimalism, New Zealand, travel

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