Maximum Gratitude, Minimal Stuff

Who's afraid of minimalism?  I think a lot of people are.  In their minds a minimalist home could never be comfortable.  No possible way.    What it could be is angular.  Abstract.  Colorless.  Empty.  Finicky.  Functional.  Not for families.   Lifeless.   That's how many people view minimalism, and it's not how they want to live. It's not how I want to live either, but I love the idea of clean lines and intentionally chosen details.  I want a spacious, streamlined home, but I also want it to be comfortable and welcoming to my family and friends, including two grandsons under the age of six. If warming and softening a minimalist space seems impossible, relax.  Having less stuff doesn't mean owning nothing.  You can have ease and cheer without sterility. 10 ingredients of a relaxing minimalist home 1.  Warm whites. Start with your largest canvases:  the walls and ceiling.  Choose a wh...

"Just in case" might be the most tempting phrase when it comes to keeping things we don't need. But it's a little like an alcoholic's "Just one more" or an unfaithful partner's "Just this once."  It's the top of a slippery slope. A portal to good memories... Remember the portkeys in the Harry Potter series?  A portkey is a magical object that transports the person who touches it to another place.  That's why some of us feel the need to hang on to material items.  The touch of your grown child's old Teddy bear or your high school sports uniform can immediately take you to the past – to a rosy place of comfort and good memories.  The physical item seems to make the memory closer and more tangible. A cherished photo, a letter, a piece of jewelry, some furniture, or something else might be useful, beautiful, and provide a connection to a loved one or to the past.  But when do all of those physical items become something other than ...

Maybe you studied Abraham Maslow's theory in high school or college.  (Remember that pyramid-shaped hierarchy of needs?)  Maslow noticed that human beings seem naturally inclined to strive and improve, and most of us follow a certain progression.   Unfortunately, in our society, many of us use our opportunities to learn and achieve not for the sake of gaining wisdom and appreciating beauty, but with the plan of earning more money so we can have more luxuries. After all, isn't that what school is for – to prepare us to get a good job?  And if we work really hard and get into a "good" school, we have more opportunities to get an even "better" job – one with more prestige and a bigger paycheck. That's how most of the people I know view it, anyway. Meeting basic needs It's nearly impossible to reach self actualization (the highest section of Maslow's pyramid) unless our basic needs are taken care of. 1.  Air, water, food, clothing, shelter Humans nee...

My mother had a pen pal when she was growing up.  They wrote to each other for over a decade. My cousin and I wrote letters to each other from when we were about six years old until our late teens.  My letters always began, "Dear Patricia, how are you?  I'm fine." I got a long, newsy letter from my grandmother once a month until she passed away.  I wrote long letters home to my family when I studied in England in 1980, to my fiancé when he took a job in Colorado six months before our wedding (we've now been married for 37 years), and to my high school best friend when she moved to Oregon (we're still friends, more than 40 years later). Back then, there was no such thing as email or texting, and long distance phone calls were charged by the minute, an expensive way to keep in touch. But today, handwritten letters are rare. While I still occasionally write letters to a few elderly aunts and uncles, most of the time I don't do much more than sign a birthday card...

Did you watch any of the recent Olympic coverage?  Whether it's gymnastics, rugby, swimming, or table tennis, there's something about seeing those incredible performances, the feats of strength, agility, endurance, and mental fortitude.  No matter who wins, it's moving to realize what that athlete has accomplished, and what every athlete who has participated in the Games has achieved.  How often do you get to witness such joy and fulfillment? What's next? But once you've reached the top of your game, what happens?  How does anyone, world class athlete or not, deal with the loss of identity that comes with achieving an all-consuming goal?  Striving toward a goal is often not just part of our identity, it is our identity.  Working toward that goal becomes what we're all about.  And once the task is accomplished, it can be a little terrifying, because now what? I suppose we think that once an Olympic athlete wins a gold medal, everything in her life wil...

My husband is going to his parents' house again this weekend.  That doesn't sound strange, does it?  Unless I tell you that his parents no longer live there. My father-in-law passed away last fall, at the age of 95.  My 93-year-old mother-in-law has moved to Arizona, and now lives in a small house across the street from her oldest son. Yet the home they lived in for 58 years is still a responsibility. A hoard of boxes My husband and his brothers have spent a lot of time over the past several months clearing out their parents' home.  Recently, they discovered ticket receipts from their family's 1968 ocean voyage to Europe on the Cunard Line's Queen Elizabeth .  They were in a box that had been in their parents' basement for over 50 years.  They've told so many stories about that trip.  Jon has many vivid memories, even though he was only 8 years old at the time.  The receipts don't add anything to those memories, nor does the unopened junk mail tha...

I watched a 3-hour DVD on Saturday, as well as some of the special features.  Then we turned on Olympic coverage and watched that for almost another 3 hours, including plenty of advertisements.  Before bed, I checked my email and wound up scrolling on Facebook for about 40 minutes. That's not a typical day for me, though for many people nearly 7 hours of non-work screen time isn't unusual.   According to the most recent studies , Americans spend an average of 4.5 hours watching TV every day, plus over 5 hours on their smart phones (sometimes both at once).  This is time spent texting, emailing, shopping, watching videos, using social media, playing games, etc. – not making phone calls.  Some people spend up to 12 hours on their devices every day. I don't know when they work or sleep or anything else. Smart phones dominate our days – and nights. Even though plenty of tech entrepreneurs are excited about the ongoing growth in this area, some experts are becom...

Back in 2012, researchers at UCLA found that women who live in cluttered homes have elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol . Yep.  Living with and managing a large volume of possessions, not to mention a jam-packed schedule, is stressful.  Who knew? The thing is, the families in this study were identified as typical two-income families, not people with a hoarding disorder.  So a cluttered home isn't rare; in fact, it's pretty mainstream. They're calling it an epidemic. There's another situation that's also becoming mainstream, not only in the U.S. but around the world.  According to the World Health Organization, its occurrence has more than tripled in the last 40 years.  It now affects nearly  2 billion  adults, including me. Maybe you've guessed that I'm talking about obesity.  Believe me, any snippet of information that might motivate or help me succeed at losing weight catches my attention. Well, guess what?  There's scientific e...

Most overweight people feel a lot of shame.  Feeling proud of myself for something to do with food is definitely not typical. I suppose that pride aspect is part of the reason I like to start a new diet.  I feel virtuous about all I'm giving up.  Shedding those first few pounds feels like a reward for how "good" I've been on the diet. But once the water weight is gone, and weight loss slows, or maybe even stalls, I stop feeling like there's anything I can be proud of.  I haven't lost the dress size I vowed to lose; I haven't even lost  10% of my body weight . I know I'm not alone in this.  So how does  anyone  keep from giving up? Here's the problem. The sad truth is that every big goal has a point at which we feel that we're making no progress.  It feels like the goal isn't getting any closer.  It's like walking toward a mountain on the horizon that seems as if it's receding into the distance.  Trent Hamm, founder of  The Simp...