So rather than a full post I thought I would share an article I really enjoyed.
Here is a taste of what it is all about.
Beyond our basic material needs for food, clothing, and shelter, how much is
enough?
In particular, how much money and how many possessions do we really need to live well and to be free?
These are not questions that many people ask themselves in consumer societies today, but they are some of the most important questions of all. Instead of confronting these questions, too many people today spend their entire lives desperately climbing the endless ladder of consumerism, seeking more and more income to spend on more and more stuff.
But at the end of life these people inevitably discover that they had not really lived, that they had wasted their only chance at life inside a shopping mall.
A free and meaningful life, it turns out, does not actually depend on having all the latest consumer products or having the nicest house on the street. On the contrary, working long hours just to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ leaves people with less time for the things that really matter in life, like friends, family, community, and engaging in peaceful, creative activity. This is the stuff that makes life worth living, and the interesting thing is we don’t need to be rich to enjoy it all.
The best things in life really are free. Abundance is a state of mind.
In particular, how much money and how many possessions do we really need to live well and to be free?
These are not questions that many people ask themselves in consumer societies today, but they are some of the most important questions of all. Instead of confronting these questions, too many people today spend their entire lives desperately climbing the endless ladder of consumerism, seeking more and more income to spend on more and more stuff.
But at the end of life these people inevitably discover that they had not really lived, that they had wasted their only chance at life inside a shopping mall.
A free and meaningful life, it turns out, does not actually depend on having all the latest consumer products or having the nicest house on the street. On the contrary, working long hours just to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ leaves people with less time for the things that really matter in life, like friends, family, community, and engaging in peaceful, creative activity. This is the stuff that makes life worth living, and the interesting thing is we don’t need to be rich to enjoy it all.
The best things in life really are free. Abundance is a state of mind.
The Simpler Way - A Practical Action Plan for Living More On Less
