The notion of a simple life is attractive. A home where everything needed is in its place. No hoarding. That’s my aspiration. Yet it’s elusive. Life gets in the way. Things are acquired and kept. Such and such ‘might be useful someday’. Instead they gather dust, unused. Occasionally a clear out is attempted. Usually it’s half hearted and seldom feels satisfactory. The mantra of future usefulness pops up. The sensible urge to get rid of something is frustrated. To give to charity or to bin. 

The appeal of simplicity may be our need for creative space***. To daydream or just to think on our own without interruption. Often, at least to me, the door to mental refreshment comes via outward, physical activities. The best medicine may be going for a walk, run or cycle. Silence*** and beauty are found in the outdoors. For some it might be gardening, knitting or painting.

Going on holiday can be a temporary window to a less complicated existence. Living for a while somewhere else there are fewer personal possessions to divert attention. Just a suitcase and maybe a book, or two. Less mental distractions as the surroundings of home aren’t in front of me. These seem worthwhile benefits. Holidays cost but if affordable are usually worth the investment.

I have written several blogs about my life on the ship MV ‘LOGOS’***. For a good deal of that time I was a single man. There was almost constant travel onboard and onshore. For some years I literally lived out of a suitcase. What could be called ‘home’ or the place I would return to was a single bunk. Often in a shared cabin in a different port with different people each time. I look back thinking that that period of life was straightforward and uncomplicated. There were many joys. Yet for some reason my memory filters out the stress that accompanied living such a life. My recall seems to simplify past life. In reality the challenges to mental and physical peace are similar to today’s.

Where does this urge to live an uncomplicated life come from? I sense it is partly a spiritual need to give space for something else. Yet I live in a consumer culture. The world around sees me as a consumer. Everywhere it seems the message is acquire more things and more experiences. Then I will be fulfilled. There is a bucket list of things to see, to do and get. The more this container is filled the more meaningful my life will be. I must experience all I can before it is too late to do so.

It is right to take hold of opportunities and ‘seize the day’. Yet this proverbial bucket has a hole in it. The reality is my heart and soul longs for something more. Life is more than just a variety of experiences, however life enhancing or enjoyable. We are more than consumers of culture or things.

“A vacationing New York businessman gets talking to a Mexican fisherman, who tells him that he works only a few hours per day and spends most of his time drinking wine in the sun and playing music with his friends. Appalled at the fisherman’s approach to time management, the businessman offers him an unsolicited piece of advice: if the fisherman worked harder, he explains, he could invest the profits in a bigger fleet of boats, pay others to do the fishing, make millions, then retire early. ‘And what would I do then? the fisherman asks. ‘Ah, well, then, the businessman replies, you could spend your days drinking wine in the sun and playing music with your friends.”

“Four Thousand Weeks” p. 134, Oliver Burkeman

The paradox is I am left with a longing for simplicity – yet also wanting new and exciting experiences. Many years ago I read  “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment” by Jeremiah Burroughs. Written about 400 years ago the English is archaic and dense to modern eyes. I remember little of its contents. However, like the best of books it left me with a feeling. Learning to be content is where wisdom lies.

“…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Philippians 4 verses 11b-13 (NIV -UK)

*** Related blogs…. Creativity, Owning It. The Sounds of Silence. For blogs on the ship MV ‘LOGOS’ see here

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