July 23

Another weekend here and time to spend with friends who may have been busy all week long. So everyone enjoy the weekend, no matter where you are.

I've been reading Thoreau's Walden again. It has been a long time since last reading it (probably since college in the early 1980s) and I'm coming away from reading it quite impressed. I think his message of simplify, simplify, simplify certainly hits a nerve today. We have too much stuff in our lives that we feel we absolutely need. When I take the dogs for a walk around the neighbor I find myself amazed at how many of the neighbors use their garages for storage space and that space is filled. No wonder there are so many yard sales every weekend. Maybe we really do need to get rid of the stuff in order to simplify our lives. I know that every time I move from one apartment to another (I've moved around 5 times in the last 6 years) you start asking yourself, do I really need to keep dragging this thing around with me any longer? What, and why, am I holding onto it and does it serve a purpose? Let me tell you, I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff in this manner. Of course, there are things that I have a hard time letting go of, like for example my music. I've got LPs, cassettes, and CDs and I just can't let go of this stuff. Maybe it is time to take another inventory of my life in order to determine what "stuff" I can let go of.

The other thing about Walden that I am finding fascinating is the connection to the earth and the world around us rather than cluttering the world with senseless noise. It is like talking for the sake of talking and really not saying a damn word. But Walden is not only about getting rid of the noise in our lives but reconnecting ourselves to the world around us by listening to the birds, hearing the breeze blowing, studying the landscape and just appreciating the world for what it is and not what we can do with it. That's one of the reasons I enjoy getting up early in the day, so that I can enjoy the quietness that is around me as well as listening to the world wake up.

Maybe as you read this it will awaken within you a desire to let go of the "stuff" in your life and this doesn't necessarily just mean material things. It could be some other "stuff" like baggage we all carry around with us and determines how we respond to life. Anyway... hope you all have a good weekend.