Defining simplicity

Dictionary.com defines simplicity like this...

sim·plic·i·ty

 /sɪmˈplɪsɪti/ Show Spelled[sim-plis-i-tee] Show IPA

–noun, plural -ties.

1.

the state, quality, or an instance of being simple.

2.

freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts: an organism of great simplicity.

3.

absence of luxury, pretentiousness, ornament, etc.; plainness: a life of simplicity.

4.

freedom from deceit or guile; sincerity; artlessness; naturalness: a simplicity of manner.

5.

lack of mental acuteness or shrewdness: Politics is not a field for simplicity about human nature. 

 

Do we even need to discuss how NOT helpful this definition is? The sad part is that I have searched the web for 20 minutes looking for a better and ...well more simple definition and this is the best I could come up with. Now I really understand what Edward DeBono meant when he stressed the importance of defining what simplicity really means to you. 

This I shall do and it shall be clear and simple. I promise.

Christmas Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

Thank you for sending the cold/flu to my family this Christmas. Like many others, almost our entire family was sick this Christmas. This could have made us do many things like...freak out, drag sick people around infecting others or make ourselves sick trying to be ready for the holidays. My family did something else...we accepted where we were and got the opportunity to appreciate a few things we might have missed like:

• My 2 year old nephew letting me wipe his nose and giving me a hug after with those sweet little arms full of love.
• The fact that my beautiful husband willingly gets up in the middle of the night to clean up puke from our floors.
• The way that hot water and lemon feels on a scratchy throat.
• The smile of a child who got "the" gift that they wanted and are content.
• The willingness of everyone to pitch in and help the host of our Christmas festivities even though we were all sick too.
• The abandonment of a traditional turkey dinner over take out Chinese so that we could spend the small amount of time we had together, not cooking and cleaning.
• The love that we all have for each other and the fact that being together was enough.

Although it was most certainly a Christmas where the good things needed to be looked for, I can say as I snuggle up to my toasty warm husband with a cup of hot water and lemon and a box of kleenex, that I couldn't ask for anything better.

So thank you Santa for the ability to slow down and enjoy some of the beautiful things in my life.

Love,

Michelle

The Flu has a way of Simplifying life

Today I was beginning to feel the familiar tension of the season creeping in. 6 days to go until Christmas and I'm still not finished my shopping and although my back is better, I'm still not in any shape to be running all over the place. So as I was consulting my list, adding to it, not deleting, my daughter called from her father's to say..."Mommy I feel so sick".

Knowing that many kids in her class, my brother, nephew and 6 month old niece and other friends have fallen to the flu, there was no doubt that she was the first in our family to go down. Safe to say, that my tension of 6 days left with too much to do could have done one or two things. Either dig deeper and increase my stress levels tenfold or deflate and concentrate on the task at hand. I now live by the principle that "you can't argue what is" (thank you to the beautiful Byron Katie who wrote Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life ).

I have now successfully deleted all but the most important things from my list and if they don't get done....well I trust that the people in my life will love me enough to cut me some slack. Who knew that the flu could be so simple?

Simplicity vs. Efficiency

In reading Edward DeBono's book Simplicity, he said something that really hit home. He says that there is a distinct difference between simplicity and efficiency. In all of my research, I'm finding that most of the books and blogs I'm reading are either focused on helping you to focus your attention to do more OR help you to drop everything and do relatively little. So far, I haven't found much literature on how to just plain make your life more simple BUT to help you to manoeuvre through the intense amount of complexity that has become our lives.

I don't want to become more efficient so that I can do more. I want to focus on the things that matter, appreciate the simple things in life BUT still live in the complexity. If I don't find a way to live in the in between place and have an appreciation of both, I will never have anyone to talk to because people are either in one camp or the other wishing their lives were different.

I guess I'm becoming closer and closer to defining what this project will really mean to me after all.

Simpleology

Well, today I was introduced to the brilliance of Mark Joyner aka Internet Marketing Guru, author and creator of www.simpleology.com a web based program that is designed to help you to simplify your life. True to form, the website focuses on grabbing you by a low monthly fee to unlock all of the brilliant wisdom that lies inside. At this point, I'm open to checking things out but safe to say that I'm not unlocking anything until I decide on the parameters of my experience. I have to say it though, it's an impressive looking program with lots of testimonials and other things that appear to guarantee your success. The question for me is do I buy the guy's book and take a boo or subscribe to the program? Well, I'll let you know.

At this point, there are a few points that are becoming very clear in this research on simplicity. Not even simplicity is simple unless you define for yourself what it means.

Simple Me, signing off to do more research!

Wisdom from Edward De Bono...10 rules of Simplicity

This man has it going on...he has even started what he hopes will become an international movement!

Here are his 10 Rules of Simplicity

1.You need to put a high value on simplicity. (Does your life running away without you count?)
2.You must be determined to seek simplicity (Ask any working mother if they have the determination to simplify their life)
3.You need to understand the matter very well. (Does a google search with 490,000 returns count?)
4.You need to design alternatives and possibilities.
5.You need to challenge and disregard existing elements.
6.You need to be prepared to start over again. (when life knocks you face down, I have to believe you are willing to try anything)
7.You need to use concepts. ( I get that, it's the details that will kill you...try talking about simplicity with an engineer)
8.You may need to break things down into smaller units.(See my comment about discussions with engineers)
9.You need to be prepared to trade off other values for simplicity. (I commit to giving up multitasking forever)
10.You need to know for whose sake the simplicity is being designed. ( I also commit that I am doing this for no one but me, me, however others will benefit)

I feel like he is talking specifically to me. This must be the right thing to do!

Energy that comes with complication

Shopping on ebay is usually as easy as pie. Find item, click purchase, have purchase shipped. Done. What could be more simple? Usually it is. This year however, I have a different story.

I purchased something from what appears to be first time seller and it has been an all holey nightmare. Not the fault of ebay but most certainly the fault of the seller. The guy has been a pain in my (you know what I mean) from the moment I won the item. We have been back and forth a hundred times and here we are merely days to Christmas and I STILL don't have my item. Interestingly enough, that isn't the real thing that bothers me. What bugs me the most is that every time I see that item, or hear my mother in law talk about it, I'm going to think of the "blankety blank" that screwed me around 50 times to get the darn item in the first place.

It got me to thinking, if something takes that much effort and there is that much crap associated with it on an emotional or energetic level, I don't want it. I would rather cancel the order and buy her something completely different so that the stupidity, complexity and junk associated with that gift would be gone. I guess I've come up with a simple solution...now the question. Will ebay comply?

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Have you ever noticed that you don't need to talk yourself into a good decision?

I don't know about you but I spend so much of my life thinking about what the right decision is and I spiral myself senseless in the process. Should I? Shouldn't I? What will happen if I do? What will happen if I don't? The crazy thing is, it's not like I'm holding someone's brain in my hand! Nothing I decide is life threatening so why do I make things so complicated. Why do we all make things so complicated?

My 13 year old has literally asked for nothing for Christmas. His birthday was a month ago and he is extremely content with his life. I have spent hours researching gift ideas for him, asked countless people and still have come up with nothing that I think will satisfy him OR me. Why am I doing this? Well because I am complicating my life based on what I think I'm SUPPOSED to do for Christmas. So I came up with a good idea today. It's easy, it's simple, it's satisfying and I almost wrote it down until I realized that he reads my blog...see buddy, I'm STILL on to you!

What's the lesson? You don't need to work so hard to come up with the right decision! The other lesson, other people's expectations only make us crazy and help us to make stupid decisions.

What's a Revolution without Oprah?

In my ongoing quest for information on simplicity, it occurred to me that I hadn't consulted the resident Guru of all things life, the Goddess of self creation, Oprah. How I could have missed it? I'm not sure. I clearly was making this project already more complicated than it needed to be.

Fortunately, I am both smart enough AND quick enough to correct my mistakes and immediately went to her website. (Did I mention that I am a subscriber so I already get stuff from her every day?) It took me approximately 2 seconds of searching before I found this link to not one article but to an entire section devoted to simplifying your life. Here is the link http://www.oprah.com/packages/upgrade-your-life.html. It is filled with practical, simple strategies for simplifying your life in pretty much all ways.

The lesson? Sometimes the most obvious thing is the thing we miss the most and is most likely the only thing we need to see. Most profound! The second lesson? When in doubt ask Oprah. She knows everything!

Getting Prepared for the Simple Revolution...Jamie Oliver Style

Today I need to confess something. This is a something that only my family knows...I'm in cooking love with Jamie Oliver. Full out, heart throbbing, run to the grocery store for more olive oil love. It's a good kind of love I think because no one's heart is broken and everyone is being fed well.

Why do you ask am I making this confession now? I am making this confession because in my quest to prepare for Simplicity XP 2011, I am researching meal prep ideas to make my life simpler and easier. In this quest, I found that lo and behold, my cooking boyfriend Jamie Oliver has come up with a new cookbook that makes both meal planning and preparation, idiot proof. His new book is called Jamie's 30 Minute Meals.

It wouldn't be feasible for me to do an experiment of any kind where cooking was involved and not have my cooking boyfriend Jamie Oliver as part of it. So, the book has been ordered and added to my growing stack of literature on living simply. Bit of an oxymoron isn't it? This experiment is going to be harder than I thought!

Simplicity overload!

I have come to an understanding about something.

As you may well know, I have decided to spend the rest of the year doing some research on the entire concept of simplicity so that I have something to work from. So between last post and now, I have been avidly researching the entire concept of simplicity (remember that my bad back still has me housebound and I'm the only not busy person right now). Between Amazon and my local library, I have come up with literally hundreds of books that address the topic and that doesn't even speak to the websites...google it. Just for fun.

My understanding is this...there is a lot of stuff out there on simple living. It would clearly behoove me to define it for myself and set some goals for the year or I will most certainly make a massive mess of complexity around my intention of living more simply. I have also come to understand that most people talk about simplicity the way that they talk about either growing armpit hair or joining a commune and eating only radishes. I would be lying if I didn't tell you that I haven't had more than one person tell me that simple living in a world this complex is not only a futile effort but just plain stupid.

We shall see...

Do the Best You Can in the Place You Are

I just came across this link to a 2 minute audio recording of Helen Nearing who apparently was a pioneer in the art of living simply. Apparently she and her husband wrote the bookLiving the Good Life: How to Live Sanely & Simply in a Troubled World and the book which apparently sold an insane amount of copies. It appears that I am not alone in my quest for simplicity. The question is... do I need to go to the extremes of living solely off the land to live simply?

Anyway, the audio clip is interesting as it talks about the concept of doing no harm....don't see myself apologizing to a radish before I eat it but an interesting concept nonetheless. You can see the link here http://www.soundstrue.com/weeklywisdom/WW101210/index.php?utm_source=soundstrue&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weeklywisdom-101210 on the Sounds True site.

I shall buy the books and see if there is any wisdom in there for my 2011 quest. In the meantime, I need to go and ask a salad and some fish if I can eat them for dinner.

Holy Christmas Concert

So last night my daughter had her inaugural singing debut. She started taking vocal lessons a couple of months ago after watching a few too many episodes of American Idol and Glee and has really been enjoying herself. The crazy thing is...the kid has a beautiful voice that she DID NOT get from either of her parents.

Last night her music school held a Christmas Concert for the residents of one of our retirement homes and my daughter to our surprise agreed to do a SOLO, singing "The First Noel". Now one would have thought that for an inaugural debut that they would have taken a simpler route and had a few kids sing together but no....when we got to the retirement home, we found an audience of well over 100 people and 29 kids performing.

So, need I even go into the hysterical stage fright that ensued? The terror of many of the kids who were performing? The fact that my husband got propositioned by one of the residents of the home? Safe to say, that they made sure that this concert was the most complicated, stressful experience that these kids could have gone through in their lives.

They, like much of what I am observing about Christmas this year seem to have lost the simple joy of singing Christmas Carols or doing something that makes someone else feel good. Look for my post next December when I try to simplify a music school's concert....and maybe jump off a bridge in the process.

Inaugural Post

Hello and welcome to my blog.

I have spent the last 3 weeks flat on my back with back troubles after an incredibly stressful year. It is safe to say that I have seen what stress can do and can also see my part in getting myself here. What has amazed me however are the stories that I have heard from others who are finding themselves in the same boat.

It's interesting to be an "observer" at this time of the year. Normally I am rushing from concerts to cookie baking and am inundated with lists and gifts and obligations. This year, I find myself being forced to really pick and choose my activities and I'm loving it. Tonight I shall watch my daughter sing in a concert, tomorrow I shall rest.

Others around me though are nuts! My mother is stressing about making a complicated meal for Christmas Eve, my friends are running like chickens with their heads cut off doing all of the things that they think they are "supposed to" and everyone in my area is panicking about an possible snowstorm that will cut time out of their preparations.

Shouldn't this be a time of year for simply enjoying what we have? The people that we love? The warmth of the season?

This is why I am going to devote 2011 to living more simply because I am observing the complexity and living with it's consequences. If nothing else, I hope to be a happier, healthier person. Maybe one or two of you will even join me!