Simple Life Corp Article - A Life Makeover

I'm not sure when I realized it didn't work. If I had to venture a guess, I would say it all came to a head when the huge moving truck backed into our new driveway. Instead of being thrilled that everything arrived as planned, I wanted to cringe as my husband unleashed the steel locks on the back of the U-Haul truck. I felt as if I was in some twisted The Price is Right Show. I was afraid for him to reveal what lay behind the massive door.

We squeezed into the truck together and gawked in silence at the endless barrage of boxes. There it all was, stacked, packed, and bulging at the seams. At least twenty years worth of gathering was laid out before us.

My mind flashed back to when my husband jokingly said we needed a separate truck just for my clothes. Somehow the joke no longer sounded funny. I was stung by the element of truth in his words.

Standing inside this truck was a pivotal time for both of us. I realized I had packed what no longer worked and carried it with us. Every last stitch was present and accounted for, down to the worn out pot-scrubber. We had carefully examined where we wanted to live, and yet we neglected to take a serious look at why our lives weren't working in the first place. We needed a lifestyle change just a much as a geographical change.

My first thoughts were to sell it all out of the back of the truck. I didn't even want to look at all the boxes and heavy furniture. Seeing everything together like this was a loud reminder of what was wrong with our lives. We held on to tightly. We hadn't left any room for growth. We no longer owned these items, they owned us.

I did not want to clutter up the new house with all this stuff. I fought off the overwhelming urge to carry it all to the basement. I told myself that there was no better time then right then to weed out we no longer needed.

We decided to stack everything in the living room and go through the boxes slowly, mindful, and with complete honesty.

As we carefully examined each box, we asked each other questions about the item. Did we really want this? What purpose did it serve? Was it time to say good-bye? What could be sold, and what should be donated? What items could be recycled? The "not sure yet boxes" were labeled and stacked in a corner in the living room. We kept them there as a constant reminder that a decision would have to be made. We were afraid if we stored them in the basement we would never sort through all of them. We took an inventory of everything. We kept what worked and found homes for what didn't.

This process made me realize how asleep I had been in my life. I knew I had to stop shirking responsibility and learn how to live more awake and in the present. I became determined to not reconstruct what didn't work. This sorting through of the boxes mirrored exactly where we were at in our lives.

This process brought up other questions as well. We decided to look closer at how we wanted to reconstruct our lives. We each made a list of the things that were most important to us. We compared lists and found common threads This created room for exploration and dialogue, which drew us closer together. I listened to my family's needs and was able to voice my own desires. We came up with a mission statement that was tailored to who we were and what was important to us. All of us rediscovered our love for the arts. Our lives became more centered around our creativity. Our actions became more deliberate and mindful. I found time to write and my husband found more time to pursue his crafts.

Our decision to home-school was birthed out of this process. Our home reflects our values and is much easier to maintain.

We do an inventory every three months, not just on household items, but ourselves as well. We check with each other and discuss what works and what doesn't. Our lives are still changing from the decisions we made in the back of the truck. It's been a slow process, like the butterfly inthe cocoon, but the changes have been lasting and life altering. The biggest changes happened inside ourselves.

Brighid Rowan, author, is currently working on a book that compiles the many wedding ceremonies and other rituals she has written. The focus is making the everyday sacred and finding the beauty in the simple things

"I see my life as a sacred journey, evolving and transforming. I am

committed to growth and living my life as a expression and extension of

who I am." Brighid Rowan

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