Living less vs. Living better

Amongst the boxes and bags and piles here lately, I've been contemplating the ironic conflict I feel between a wish to "live simply", and all the various wants and wishes I have to add things to my life. To be fair to myself, I generally want to alter, not add - for example, the 40 yr. old sofabed has gone to a new home with a needy FreeCycler, with the eventually plan being to buy a nice new sofa. I didn't want *another* sofa, I wanted a *better* sofa.

This one's maybe harder. I have a longstanding habit of buying packs and bags. I have a few now, including a very expensive one from Cirque du Soleil. So, what do I want now?

One of these:



And this:



Yeah, more Cirque goodies. Again, to be fair - the PVC knock-off designer bag I succumbed to last spring is starting to disintigrate and doesn't stay on my shoulder. And I damaged one of my older ones somehow.

And, we have a decent vacuum cleaner, old-fashioned solid canister type with bags, and Mom offered to get me a lightweight Swiffer vac, but I want a :



"Living more simply" means a $430 robotic vacuum? Nope, I must be a failure.

Well, maybe not. I recently read a pagan Almanac article that reiterated for me something I had already hashed out - "living more simply", or "living lightly" as this article called it, if you consider it to be techno-phobic, dress-out-of-a-dumpster, poor grooming movement, is just plain not a sustainable lifestyle choice. And that's not what modern simple living advocates really are going for.

Consider the phrase should be "Living Consciously".

Yes, bust the clutter. If you don't know why you have something - why do you still have it? Walk when driving would save you only 5 minutes. No, you don't need 35 pairs of jeans (or 4 vacuums!). But buy some fresh damn socks and if you need shoes to go with just one particular outfit, well, yeah, you do. And maybe two of some household tools can tackle a job in a way that saves you dragging heavy equipment up and down narrow stairs or putting a hole in your plaster.

It's not even, necessarily, about living as *cheaply* as possible (though that is a need for some - great!), though it is about not exceeding your means, financially and karmically.

What it's about is being CONSCIOUS of what consumerism does to you, and for you, and understanding your buying decisions and the drive behind them. The power of them, too, really. Understanding the reasons why you need/want these things. Also understanding what is your need/want is not necessarily someone else's. Others are free to define what they NEED.

Living consciously (simply, lightly) can't be about depriving yourself of nice comfy furniture, a couple fashion handbags if their use would really satisfy you, or a convenience when yeah, you could do it the hard way. If it is, I'm sorry, but then it is a doomed movement. Living consciously should be about developing your awareness of quality, sustainability, direction, and action in choices about how you live. Learn what the different choices are and how they work, and what the better one is - FOR YOU - rather than just blindly accepting what's on sale under the blue-light special.