The Art of Simplicity

Things are changing....again. They are changing in the outside world as well as in my inner world. What is happening in the outside world, the speeding up of time, the call to values, the rise of global consciousness, etc. is exciting as well as curiosity provoking. What will things look like in the near future? How will we BE in the world around us?

The same can be said for what is happening in my inner world. I am changing. It is both exciting and curiosity provoking. What will my inner world look like in the near future? and how will I BE in the world around me?

The process in my inner world began with a loss of a job that I truly enjoyed. That is to say it was the catalyst for change. (Anybody remember the book "Necessary Losses"?) What then really started the dynamic catabolism inside me was the opening of energy channels during level 1 Reiki training. I believe the change both in the outside world and the inside world is a call to simplicity.

We often espouse such things as "less is more", or "spirituality rather than materialism". Most of us, though, struggle with making those ideas a reality. We find it difficult to step outside of mind and into the connection with divine energy. We are bombarded with advertising, consumerism, and holes in our psyche telling us we are "less than" if we do not have at least as many toys, bells, and whistles as our neighbor or our best friend or the guy we work with.

In the outside world we are being called to simplicity because if we don't there will no longer be resources for survival. In addition, the raising of consciousness has begun to see the unfairness of some having everything and others having little or nothing. There is also the recent factor of seeing on a global scale the devastation that greed, the opposite of simplicity, has wreaked on economies on the macrocosmic level and struggling individuals on the microcosmic level.

In my inner world, my psychic holes allowed me to clutter my life with "stuff". My house right now looks like a bomb hit it. Cupboards have been emptied, furniture used for storage has been emptied and it's all in piles on the floor and everywhere. I am appalled when I realize how much "stuff" there is! So much of it is superfluous, unnecessary, no longer has a purpose or meaning. I am cleaning out. I can't function properly with all this molecular jumping around that doesn't belong in my energy field.

A number of years ago (the late 70's) I took a thirty day tour of Jordan and Israel. I am not a typical tourist. I like to explore the back roads. I like to eat where the locals eat. I like to buy real meaningful things to bring home instead of tourist trinkets. I often departed from my group to explore something meaningful to me. What I discovered was this: There are only three things NECESSARY for life -- enough water to drink, enough bread to eat, and enough fire for warmth. Okay, a little spartan but true. Then it's important to add some love: divine love, family love. I was humbled by my experience in the desert with a little woman with 2 small children bent over a fire making tea with a small herd of goats nearby. This is why Jesus said "look at the lillies of the field, they toil not nor spin...." We worry too much about what we THINK we need and forget that our connection to the Divine takes care of us!

When I came home from that experience, I walked into my home and it was culture shock. Everything in my surroundings seemed meaningless. Although I never forgot the lesson, it didn't take long for the veil to drop back over my eyes and my American excesses to reclaim my spirit and plunge it back into unconsciousness. The God and Goddess be thanked -- I am finally reawakening!

To feel secure, I have always lived in a cave-like environment and envisioned my perfect ideal home to be a real cave if I could ever find the one in my head (it was quite something!). Now my "cozy little nest seems dark and claustrophobic. The heavy drapes are going away; light is coming in. Heavy furniture is disappearing and simplicity is taking its place. It is important for continuing growth to not be tied down by volumes of possessions but to be freed from all that clutter, all those dust-catching objects. My surroundings need to feel as light and airy as a delightful walk in nature with a gentle breeze on my face.

Who knew that one day of Reiki training would produce so much difference? I had peeled off enough onion layers to be ready. I had heard the Divine whispering (or screaming!) "SIMPLICITY" for some time; now I am able to set my feet to walk that path. The art of simplicity is to not look back, keep moving forward, engage detachment and keep living, loving and laughing.

Namaste! July 21, 2009