Back to Basics

Montana shmontana.  I love Montana.

For the last few months I have been trying to figure something out.  After spending the last week in Montana, it started to become very clear:

.simplify.

If you know me personally you know how much I like things, especially clothing things.  I have a lot of them.  A ton of them.  My clothes and accessories take up over two closets and an entire room of my house.  They're not all nice things, or expensive things--almost everything I own I buy at thrift stores or by the pound--but I like costuming and collecting so much I can always find a reason to keep something around.

"It looks like you're running a retail store out of your basement,"  my mom told me two weeks ago.  True mom, true.

So while I was in Montana I re-enjoyed one of the great things about travelling: taking a limited amount of crap with you.  Inevitably, it's crap that you really like.  And then you realize you only need the crap you really like, and not all this other crap that you enjoy, but obviously not enough to take on vacation.

I also got to re-enjoy the simplicity of Montana.  Truly the biggest sky, and life with the most minimal amount of material burdens.  Once you get over the anxiety of being away from the chaos of a city / urban area (cell phone, email, internet, work, travel, congestion, advertising, blah blah blah) it's incredible how peaceful you feel.  Like a horse.  You feel like a wild, majestic, muscular, grazing horse.  Maybe a Palomino.  Maybe a Quarter Horse.

That's a good feeling.

I realized it's time to take my inner horse and let him out.  To do that, I need to simplify.  What I've been wrestling with for the last several months is so base:
get.rid.of.stuff.

Not everything--not like I'm going to be a nomad, or a freaky minimalist, or  one of those people who's like "life is all about your soul, man".  But I'm going to unload.  Because I own far more than one person needs, and it's keeping me from moving forward.  Too many choices!!!!!

So in the coming weeks I will be unloading things that I love and hold dearly: on etsy, to friends, and at the goodwill.  Hopefully I will be smart about what I can upcycle, and what I need to just pass on.

If you have any suggestions (or requests) please pass it on!

Stay tuned.