Living Deliberately ~ Realization

We didn't wake up one day and say, Let's Live Deliberately. For us the transition came slowly. Which is really a good way to transform one's lifestyle. A slow transformation gives a person time to develop new habits and a new way of thinking.

When Hubby & I had lived in Colorado back at the end of the last century (that sure makes us sound old!), we lived in a small house in the mountains, didn't have a lot of extra fluff & enjoyed the small pleasures that Life presented to us. We then moved to the South and slowly we were sucked into the mindset that bigger (and more) was better. We moved into a bigger house which we then filled with lots of stuff. Life was good but we had no one to share all of the goodness with, there was an empty space that we couldn't quite seem to fill. Our family was a long, long way away. And our time, energy and money was being sunk into the house and the stuff that was in the house so vacations were very few and far between. 

Life then gave us the opportunity to change that. We moved back close to family and into a house smaller than we had had for many years. Kids and Grandkids and the pleasures of life became the focus of our time and energy. Our house was soon filled with Love and Laughter instead of  'stuff'.  And believe me, Love and Laughter do a lot more to nourish a soul than material objects.

When Life presented us with an extreme challenge, we learned what truly mattered. And made adjustments accordingly. But not everyone needs to experience such life changing events as we did in order to change their way of thinking. And living a deliberate life does take a certain frame of mind - a "want" to have a life full of experiences and to make the world a better place.

Tomorrow I'll share my experiences with de-cluttering.