What does Simplicity mean to you?

I recently came across this documentary on Netflix called Tiny: A Story About Living Small. The documentary is based on this 30 year old guy who has always wanted to live out in nature, so he bought a plot of land and built a Tiny House on the flat bed of a truck, with no prior building experience. First off, I had never heard of people living in Tiny houses, and the concept was so intriguing to me, the idea of living in a space that is so small and so....simple. And then this Sunday Mother Anna talked about getting rid of the 'clutter', the things that aren't bringing joy into our life, and I thought more about simplicity and what that means to me. 

Simplicity means living in an uncluttered way, both literally and figuratively. You would think it's simple, but it's really not. It means getting rid of stuff, letting go of things that may have meant something to you at one time, or maybe never meant anything to you--they were just taking up space in your life. Simplicity, to me, looks like living within my means. And when my 'means' grow, that doesn't excuse having more stuff--I can still have few things, just nicer more quality things. Simplicity looks modesty; being organized; not dragged down by my literal, emotional or spiritual 'stuff'. Simplicity feels like freedom from all the meaningless things in life that you don't need to carry around with you. Living in a simple way can be liberating in so many different ways. 

I admittedly struggle. I hold onto things that hurt me. I shop way too often. I am so scattered and disorganized, but I am simple. My spirit is simple. I want to love and be loved, that's pretty simple. But I want to exercise more simplicity, I want to practice living simply in all the ways one could live simply. I want to learn how to use simplicity as a reflection of my values, as a way to live out what's actually important to me.

Maybe I'll live in a Tiny house, or something along those lines. Maybe I'll feel ok with not having lots of things, maybe I'll begin to rid my life of the things that don't bring me joy.

Even as I've been writing this, I think how crazy it is to try to live simply when we're really such complicated beings. Or maybe we just like things to be complicated. The world is complicated, this city is complicated, my feelings and thoughts and yearnings are often complicated. Maybe  de-cluttering my life, living in a more simple way, will gradually allow me to address the complications that I run into. Maybe I'll be able to look out into the world, and inward at myself, with a fresh outlook when I work to live in an uncomplicated way.

I wanted to look up what the definition of simplicity is, hoping it would help me find a good way to end this reflection. Here's what I found--Simplicity can be defined as the state, quality or an instance of being simple; freedom from complexity, intricacy or division into parts; absence of luxury, pretentiousness, ornament; freedom from deceit or guile. It is synonyms with sincerity  naturalness, modesty, clarity, integrity, unity. 

To me, simplicity means embodying all that is good and true and just, and living in a way that reflects that. I hope to continue practicing this more throughout the year, and discovering new ways of living simply that I can carry with me into my future, wherever I may go.