Recognizing Abundance

"Our life is frittered away by detail...  Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity."

--Henry David Thoreau

So, I'm back to reading my little book about simplifying your life...  It's called Secrets of Simplicity by Mary Carlomagno.  It's a cute little book - but asks good questions, leading you toward a simpler way of living.  I started it a while ago, and then in the midst of busy life (ironic, right?) it got set aside.  So I picked it up again this morning...

Today's chapter is about recognizing abundance!  Really looking around at all the possible choices we make - from what cereal to buy (in that never-ending aisle of cereals) to all the ways we could spend our time!  It's kind of crazy when you think about it... 

The first thing this chapter asks, is when have you been overwhelmed by choice?  Shopping-wise, for me it's books.  There are so many good ones, and so little time!  (But I've gotten better at limiting that, knowing that I won't get to most of them anyway!)  The other thing that does overwhelm me with choice - is social media!  I'm pretty set on email, Facebook, and my blog.  But I was recently asked by my youth to try Twitter, too.  I tried.  For a second time.  I just don't see the point... It feels like yet another channel for impersonal contact, in such short bursts that it's not meaningful, or relationship-encouraging.  It feels like a waste of my precious, limited time.  So I gave up.  I still have the account, and maybe I'll try again at some point...  I just wish people would make an effort at face to face contact again!

The next part was a checklist of the ways you spend your time.  I'm happy to say the couple of things I am missing in my life, I'm already making progress on!  Volunteering, spending time with old friends and making new friends, and exercise.  Woohoo!  (Working on those will also help with "working less than 10 hours a day!")

Interesting things to think about, but the really interesting question for today has to do with "Tolerances."  Ha ha ha.  Interesting.  Here's what it says:

"So what happens when we're living in an unconcious way, running from one crisis to another?  We gradually begin to tolerate an unhealthy and unpleasant level of half-completed projects, tasks that need to be taken care of - in other words, problems you put up with because you don't have time or energy to solve them.  These are called "tolerances," and they're defined as things that distract you, waste your time, weigh you down, and have a negative effect on your life.  Examples of tolerances include the following:
-My webpage needs updating
-My guest bedroom has become a storage closet
-I have become the office dumping ground because I am a good listener
-I have more books that bookshelves
-I hold onto stocks that haven't made me money and show no signs of ever being profitable
-I have clients who cancel at the last minute
-My bathtub drain continues to clog"

Yep.  Tolerances.  Any of these sound familiar to you?  Because several sound familiar to me!  I'll be thinking about - and making lists today - of what my tolerances are...  And tomorrow?  I start doing something about them!

What tolerances are you putting up with?


Things I am thankful for today:

1.  A great Mission Team meeting last night!
2.  Focus and enthusiasm.
3.  Coming home to a clean house and dinner prepared.
4.  A lovely husband.
5.  A yummy, healthy dinner.
6.  Fresh snow this morning.
7.  Candles.
8.  Mint tea.
9.  Laughter with the youth group kids.
10.  Origami boats.

QotD:  Do you owe someone money?  Does someone owe you? 
Ha ha ha.  The mortgage company.  And car loans.  But swiftly paying them off!  And no.  No one owes us...  Ha ha ha.