Monday, February 8th,
2016
Blog #1 Update
As of today, February 7,
2016, I have lost 12 plus pounds. The
eating part is going well although; I am weary of being so rigid and not being
able to go out to eat mainly because restaurants are not really conducive to a
“liver detox” cleansing diet.
Nonetheless, I am determined to continue until February 14th
when we will celebrate at our favorite restaurant on the other side of the
island. Most of the time I marvel at how
quickly the time flies by, however, remarkably the last five weeks have slowed
time down considerably!
Blog Entry #2 Living With Less in 2016
My close friend and yoga
colleague in Vancouver (Canada) asked me if I would write about how Tony and I
managed to dispose of 2,207 items in 2015. Our goal was to recycle and/or eliminate 2015
items in one year. It did not mean that
one matchbook or piece of paper was considered one thing. A pile of paper on my desk that I have been
meaning to sift through counted as one. A
box full of graduate papers written and long forgotten counted as one
item. Dusty textbooks went to our local
village bookstore and counted as one each.
Generally speaking we counted every article of clothing as one item as
well as each pair of shoes. You get the picture. It is incredible how attached I was to the
strangest things. For example, single
earrings that have been around for years were still in my jewelry box. Why? – the hope of finding the earring had
long been forgotten. Luckily, I have a young friend who only wears one earring
and so she got them all and each one counted for one. I was particularly attached to clothing – all
manner of tops, bottoms, dresses and miscellaneous items had been stashed for
some later date or event that would likely not be worn anyway. Styles and taste changes, even though I tend
to live in my favorite yoga clothing most of the time. At first, the clothing went slowly. Plastic bins revealed tops and bottoms I had
completely forgotten about and obviously hadn’t been worn in literally
years. Tony and I made a vow that if we
bought a new clothing item, we had to recycle something, otherwise we would
eventually end up where we started and we were determined to take a very Zen
approach to our new, more spartan lifestyle.
Speaking of Zen, a wooden “meditation” clock I loved but had never used
is currently sitting by the door for recycling to be donated to our local
transfer station where there is a well organized recycling center. They are happy to receive anything usable and
in good condition. Downstairs in the laundry
room our shelves were lined with about 25 big plastic bins containing
everything from forgotten clothing to Tony’s previous engineering project
plans, business manuals and obsolete papers.
He was actually happy to get rid of them and remarked feeling relieved
to purge all that stuff he thought he might need at some later date. Just an illusion …. Art work, picture frames, photos, wintery
clothing we thought we might use for visits to the mainland, old towels we assessed
would be handy for something all got tossed into the recycling pile. Living in paradise is not without its
challenges. Virtually everything rusts, rots or molds, bins or no bins – so
there is no point in saving anything that isn’t in active use. We learned this fact the hard way. Other than our emergency preparedness bin for
natural island disasters and our Christmas decorations, the shelves are quite
bare at this writing.
In December of 2015 we were
short of our goal by 178 items and frantically took a second look in every closet,
shelf and drawer to see what else we could dispose of. There was plenty. That dress hanging in the closet for five (!)
years until I lost 5 pounds to fit perfectly – gone with the wind. Even though I lost the five pounds several
times over, the dress continued to sit on a hanger without a second
thought. Young friends were offered
halters and tank tops that no longer “worked” for me. Silk scarves gathering dust floated into the
hands of friends that fancied them.
Accessories that hadn’t seen the light of day made it into the box. Some of the hardest items to part with were
dishes. I covet dishes and books. Parting with books was easier since I have
discovered Kindle. Kitchen tools and
dishes that belonged to my beautiful Mama had survived several moves because of
my attachment 16 years after her death. Admittedly,
I kept a few of my favorite pieces and promised myself to use them or lose them. We had peaks and valleys during this
process. At times we were able to get
rid of stuff with reckless abandon.
Other times a month or two would slip by without getting rid of a single
thing. A year was a reasonable time to
rethink our strategy, take a deep breath and begin again.
“It is because of our attachment to
things that we suffer. By letting go we
find that we have not lost anything except our attachment.”
~ Sogyal Rinpoche ~
This year we have reduced
our goal to 1,000 items. I’m still
working on recycling books that I continue to be attached to. Last year we were actually happy when
something broke so we could count one more thing to add to our list. What
follows are a few practical tips you might find helpful:
If it doesn’t fit in your closet and/or your dresser, get rid of it. That applies to clothing you aren’t really crazy about or waiting for things to fit you. Don’t forget the shoes you have tucked away and haven’t worn in years.
Don’t keep gifts you don’t like or won’t use; know that someone out there will love it.
Digitize your photos and get rid of all those boxes of images you never look at. (I’m still working on this.)
Get a recycling box and put it somewhere visible to remind you to move things out of your space and into the bin.
If you buy something new get rid of the old.
Got doubles? – such as kitchen utensils, ask yourself how many spatulas do you really need to be happy and functional.
Clear your counters of clutter regularly.
There are organizations that are happy to receive your old cell phones and eyeglasses (Google that!). I heard of a place in NYC that refurbishes old cell phones to give to women in need.
And remember,
“The root of suffering is attachment.”
~ Buddha
Black Sand Beach, Big Island, Hawaii