Dreams are a window to the soul—sometimes random, sometimes murky and hard to interpret, but other times just blindingly obvious and embarrassingly shallow. In my beautiful dream the other night, I was sitting at a desk organizing papers. I took a stack of receipts and reached up to a set of shelves to where a pile of clean white envelopes was waiting. It made me deeply happy.
Life in a Tent
You see, for two months we’ve been living in a tent. Not camping, but living: getting kids ready for school, cooking, getting clean, sweeping out spiders. Two months with all our clutter and comforts and distractions stripped away, laying bare the essentials of life and letting us see what we really need or enjoy.
Surprisingly, we miss very little. Yes, little things like indoor plumbing and sock drawers and cold juice will be nice when we move into our new house, but the biggest excitement is to have a desk with drawers and shelves. Somewhere to file papers, leave the computer plugged in, and find envelopes. Somewhere to get stuff done.
But What Will Be Lost?
Ironically, that simple workstation threatens the very aspects of this nomadic life that has brought our family closer together. Instead of checking emails and paying bills, we’ve gone for family walks, picked flowers, fed the pigs. After the kids are in their sleeping bags, instead of Facebook and videos we’ve watched the moon rise, enjoyed the wood-burning sauna, lit a fire.
Try A Comfort Fast
When we fast, the first foods we crave are inevitably our unhealthy addictions. Apparently, the same holds true for a comfort fast.
So here’s the challenge. Find a way to strip yourself of all your clutter, all your comforts and distractions. Get as basic as you can for as long as you can (in your imagination if nowhere else) and discover what brings you deep Joy. What rhythms naturally work for you? Hold onto those, find ways to maintain and nurture them in “normal” life.
And most importantly, listen carefully to what you most miss. If it’s healthy and doesn’t take away from the “joys” list above, then bring it back and celebrate it. But you might find it’s just clutter, once again separating you from that basic, natural rhythm.
As for us, we’re putting the office out in the garage. A place where we have to deliberately and intentionally go to when the time’s right, rather than just absently drift from our children and easy-togetherness that we’ve learned to cherish. We’re going to find a way to have our envelopes and lick them too.
. . . . . . .
Photo courtesy of Pink Moose
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