Walking, Coffee, Stuff, Minimalism Challenge, Saturday Mornings, etc.

As I get a bit older, I keep thinking differently about stuff and busy-ness.

Some of that fancy latté art

Let's talk about Saturday mornings. I love Saturday mornings. I sleep in a little on Saturdays, almost an hour longer than normal. I get up quietly, throw on some clothes, grab a few things, and walk over to the local coffeehouse. Besides clothes, I have my ever-present phone, wallet, and keys. I also carry a grocery bag, my journal, my bible, a pen, and some cheater glasses. The grocery bag I fill up with trash as I walk the neighborhood and drop it in a dumpster near the coffeehouse. I am usually one of the first to arrive at the coffeehouse. I order a single coffee drink and a whole-wheat cinnamon roll. I sit in the back corner reading, writing, sipping, munching, and sometimes planning blog posts. I am usually there about an hour. As I walk home, I pick recyclables up. When I get home, I usually climb back in bed with my lovely wife - she is not a morning person, and that is probably a good thing.

The thing about these particular Saturday mornings, I have everything I need. I usually spend around five dollars. In our world of stuff and hurry, this is a time of little stuff and little hurry. Weather does not affect it. I can walk in snow, rain, fog, heat, wind. The coffee can be hot, cold, good, terrible. The cinnamon roll can be the same. The temperature inside the building also matters little.

The only variable that ever messes things up for me is noise level. If the music is too loud and distracting or the patrons are too loud and distracting, then I get nervous and don't enjoy the morning so much. I go there seeking a reverential contentment, but noise can melt that away. (I should probably re-think the ever-present cell phone too.)

For me, contentment is the important word. I am not seeking joy or happiness. On Saturday mornings, I work at being content. When I find that - happiness, joy, patience, even a tiny bit of wisdom - things all seem to fall in place. The week is better, and I have more resilience to face it and to care for those who need me.

After having read this far - pat yourself on the back for attention-span endurance - here is a nifty little pair of links to help you if you are trying to slow down a bit to seek a bit of contentment:

Green Livivng Ideas article about the minimalism challenge

The 30-day Minimalism Challenge

I am a big fan of days 1, 4, 10, and 24. I dont think I will struggle much with days 9, 17, and 23.

May you find some contentment in your days. Thank you, as always, for reading this blog!

Wrestling with Socrates

Socrates versus Neo, or, um, Ted 

 

A life unexamined is not worth living. - Socrates

Every time I run across this quote it takes me aback. A life unexamined is not worth living?!!!

How about you? Do you believe it? Do you examine your life? Do you take time to look at yourself and figure out what the heck you're doing? Does it make your life worth living? (Forgive me, but I always get a little introspective when we head into the holidays and into colder weather. When it's cold outside, I examine life more. But I live in a mostly warm place, so I don't examine too closely. The whole thing explains the quality of Siberian writers to me. You seldom hear about the great Bahamian novelists - the weather is too nice.)

But I do make an effort to examine life fairly often. Many years ago, a young woman named Ginny handed me a blank journal and said, "It's your turn." I have been writing ever since.

When the writing is going well, I do examine life. I count blessings. I recognize missteps. I correct the course. I get things into perspective. I plan for betterment.

In neutral times, I make lists and document the daily comings and goings of a pretty average life.

When it's going badly, I do all of the things listed above, but poorly and with a negative slant.

When it's going really badly, I do not write at all, and life goes unexamined.

For me, it is one of the springs for the whole Mesquite Hugger thing. I examine what I do, I loosely categorize it, and then I decide what to do with it, and how things could be made better.

When I do examine my life, I try to categorize how I spend my time: positive, neutral, and downright bad.

Positive: spending time with family, spending time in worship, walking the skinny dogs, spending time with friends, making life better for others, teaching people how to make life better for others, fixing things, learning, time spent in nature, reading. (Just imagine the Mesquite Hugger joy for me if I could synthesize some of these things into a string - learning about some thing that makes the world a better place for others, building that thing, teaching friends how to build that thing...)

Neutral: washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning house, all the stuff that makes life no better or worse but does help one to exist in this world.

Downright Bad: time in front of mindless TV, dwelling on the negative, shopping for shopping's sake, playing video games, wasting resources, sitting around the house, focusing on depressing news stories, analysis paralysis.

May you have a friend like Ginny and a teacher like Socrates, and may your life's analysis bring you joy and improvement!