There are many wonderful people pursuing and promoting simplicity. Fortunately, some of them are gifted in communication and choose to encourage and inspire us with their words. I enjoy reading their perspective. I’m sure you will too.
So fix yourself a nice warm cup of coffee or tea on this beautiful weekend. Find a quiet moment. And enjoy some encouraging words about finding more simplicity in your life today.
For Many People, Gathering Possessions is Just the Stuff of Life | LA Times by Mary MacVean. The average U.S. household builds up a plethora of stuff, which means that figuring out what to keep and what to discard is no easy matter.
Here’s Proof Buying More Stuff Actually Makes You Miserable | TIME by Martha C. White. Even when materialism is defined in ways generally seen as positive in our society, the result of those goals is corrosive to our well-being.
Master of None | Unfiltered by Brian Gardner. You can only spin so many plates, because at some point they will start to fall.
Millennials Don’t Care About Owning Cars, And Car Makers Can’t Figure Out Why | Fast Company by Darren Ross. This is an article about cars. But it is also an article about our changing views of ownership.
9 Things We Should Get Rid of to Help Our Kids | We Are That Family by Kristen Welch. Because reality is, life doesn’t give us everything we want.
Image: Steve Shinn
Joshua, I’ve been on an intentional and unintentional move toward minimalism and this article is wonderful as it shares a community of like minds providing inspiration. Thank you so much!
Excellent collection again Josh! Following saying pops to my mind when thinking about possessions:
“The things you own end up owning you. It’s only after you lose everything that you’re free to do anything.” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
I also wrote a wee poem a while ago as part of my “in 160 characters” series on my blog:
~ Reflection ~
Reflecting on things.
All these shiny possessions,
possessing our mind;
sneaky belongings,
longing for meaning.
Subsurface,
bloated nothingness,
mere illusion.
Even though I didn’t manage to make your post my weekend read, I really enjoy the series. Keep up inspiring people Josh! :)
Great reads! I especially enjoyed reading about the car-less millenials as I am one myself :-) Thank you!
happiness has never been possessing more things. We can enjoy life with the little and simple things. Thank you
Thanks so much for your research, personal disclosures, and summative articles – such great reads. I am often re-posting them on my blog. A basic goal for simplicity- don’t spend time reinventing the wheel :)
Great links! I bought a book about owning too much stuffs and I can’t wait to read it.
Just thought I’d pass along this link to a car ad from adweek –a parody of Cadillac’s poolside ad. It was part of Tsh Oxenreider’s weekend links. Interesting to me how you both referenced cars this week.
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/ford-trashes-cadillac-great-parody-poolside-ad-everyone-hated-156597
Hey Josh …
You might find another bit of inspiration in THE SIMPLICITY SERIES : : TRAVELING LIGHT that we did over at Creekside this month.
http://creeksideministries.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-simplicity-series-traveling-light.html
A good time was had by all …
The weekend reads you put together are fabulous. My husband and I are starting the process. And because of you my two favourite rooms in my house are my bedroom and living room. As I have minimized them. My bedroom has a bed. We sold our dressers, night stands everything. It was so refreshing in our living room we got rid of books and book shelfs. And have left our tv and couch. Can’t part with TV yet though we canceled our satellite and stick to basic. I really enjoy the news before work. I canceled my social media. My life is so much simpilar. But now when I’m in the room with my husband I’m in the room. Not on my phone or watching brainless tv. We are working on the kitchen and deciding what we can and can’t live with out. Coffee maker as to the microwave sort of thing. Coffee maker stayed….microwave gone.
Thank you thank you.
These were all great articles and I have even bookmarked a couple of them. Especially liked the last one, every parent today needs to read it. I’m a nanny and my nanny parents definitely need to read it.