Simplicity, the ultimate goal

It takes a lot of effort to achieve simplicity. Life is complex nowadays.

As far as I remember, when I was a little girl, life was all right. I was trying to remember this afternoon what I use to eat when I was in elementary school. I don’t remember everything, but I remember that some days was a banana with oatmeal, or a warm bowl of cooked oatmeal with cinnamon. Some afternoons when I would get to my grandma’s home from school, she would fry an egg leaving the yolk soft, a slice of Italian bread and homemade butter, and a glass of warm milk with honey.

For lunch we had rice, beans, a lot of vegetables picked fresh from our garden, beef or chicken, sometimes sardines or anchovies and cod fish. For dinner was soup, I remember especially a few that my grandma made like with pinto beams and spaghetti, or with peas and bacon. Weekends we had the perfect homemade pasta with roasted chicken or beef marinade.

The holidays were special. We would have turkey, panettone, ‘leitoa pururuca’, and many times, Brazilian churrasco. The soda we had was Guarana or taubaina, and life was simple, and filled with joy, time with family, outdoors playing and study a lot at the nun's school.

It was okay to buy one pair of shoes a year for school or when that old pair was poked bad, just a few new clothes for Christmas or a birthday. We children would spend the most of our time with cousins playing outside, climbing the trees, riding our bikes, playing school or dolls. Just because it was enough.

Every Sunday we would go to Church all family together, as we lived not far from each other.

I remember we had one TV in the living room, and that was rarely used, unless it was raining. Mom would spend the morning taking care of us, the house, sewing or cooking, listening the radio’s series. At night, dad would get home from work and we'd have dinner. Later, prayer, picture books and good dreams.

Sunday afternoons the family would gather under the yellow plum tree. We kids probably were climbing the branches and throwing those big yellow plums to everyone. Laughter, life and memories that will never be erased from my heart. I cherish them.

Today everything is so different.

We have a TV in each room, computers, iPods, iPads, iPhones, Droids, Blackberries, video games, laptops, Kindles, and then came blogs, email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, frozen or fast food, hundreds of big sales with lots and lots of clothes and shoes that we do not have place for everything. It's easy to have more than we can handle.

There are cars, houses, jet-skis, snow mobiles, cars of all shapes, sizes and kinds. A home for three people need to have at least 4 bedrooms to accommodate everything we accumulate. More we earn, more we want, more we buy.

It is a false sense of security that pushes people to a hole like a prison. It slaves us.

Not so long ago, stuff was valuable. Today everything is a lot cheaper, so we instinctively accumulate it.

But clutter saps our spirit.

I don’t recall my first heart beat. Each of us has had pains, trials, joy, and have been corrupted in a way that it seems we can’t live without all that we surrounded our life.

So, when did that start?

It has been on earth as long as I have lived. This 'progress' (or regret?) of humanity that gives more of everything, translated as 'comfort'.

In the process of becoming ageless, I have slowly started discovering the whys and the wherefores. The most of them I know simply by living. You know more than you imagine using your own senses.

Sometimes so many stuff get in the way, and we have the right to shout. Shout loud!

Or maybe assume totally our inner silence. What do we really need? Why?

Opportunities like this to realize what matters most. They come and go, and we make the most of them. I am, therefore I am. Patience always pays off in the end.

Alienation.

We live in a time that Emergency Preparedness is real. We need to be ready when anything that is not in our plans of life will strike us. It can be a natural disaster, death of close relative, unemployment, divorce, illness. It doesn't matter. It is important though that we will be able to have the necessary before the superfluous.

In Psychology, detachment refers to "inability to connect" or "mental assertiveness". Two so different meanings, and useful tools to be able to simplify. It's urgent that we learn to reconnect to ourselves, but, to what really matter. We need connections to live.

We need to know ourselves in order to be paying attention when the clock rings that all is too much.

We need to wake up, stop, and go back to basics.

Take care of ourselves first, and acquire new and healthier habits. If life does not allow us to do that, we need to change something. It is not just about stuff. It is about balance of mental disposition to do what we suppose to do.

One day at a time.

It can be a cluttered room or an entire house. It can be a lot of personal problems with family, work, friends. It can be doubts about beliefs and ideology.

We need to learn to slow down and focus on the things that matter most. We all know what and who they are. Yes, we do. We need to assume it definitely.