Years ago I backpacked through central america. I didn't have any plans beyond just going. My cut-rate airlines flight changed the destination of my flight to mexico from... I don't really remember.... to Cancun, and it didn't matter.
I was aiming for simple and that meant that I had to simplify myself as well. I'd looked up ‘travel essentials’ so that I didn't take anything superfluous. My wardrobe was sparse, versatile, utilitarian and yet stylish. I did take a white dress shirt with me, which was a bit luxurious for what I was up to, but they're versatile and can dress up a pair of shorts or jeans pretty quickly should need arise and I had no idea if I’d want to be a little more respectable at some point on the trip.
I was aiming for simple and that meant that I had to simplify myself as well. I'd looked up ‘travel essentials’ so that I didn't take anything superfluous. My wardrobe was sparse, versatile, utilitarian and yet stylish. I did take a white dress shirt with me, which was a bit luxurious for what I was up to, but they're versatile and can dress up a pair of shorts or jeans pretty quickly should need arise and I had no idea if I’d want to be a little more respectable at some point on the trip.
Thinking of that experience and how easy it was to just be unburdened of all the extra stuff I usually have with me, makes me think of a quotation from fight club: "The things you own end up owning you".
The Blog challenge question I’m working with today is “Could you live a minimalist lifestyle?”
I'm unsure about what I want to do next, I really just want to spend my time working on graphic design projects and the Life Athletics site but it’s not making enough money for me to exist off of quite yet and my savings would vanish faster than I’d care to admit.
The contract for my day job is almost done and the thought of leaving this situation is at once exciting and daunting.
I'm in a very comfortable spot. I like my apartment and my motorcycle. I have accumulated fitness gear that serves me well and I wouldn't want to walk from all of this to put myself in a position where in a few months I’d be scrambling to again situate myself in a place with a regular pay check.
The dream of living off of Life Athletics is still a little ways away. This is not at all a terrible place in which to find myself but it is not a place of total freedom and carefree fancy.
Traveling minimally is a wonderful concept but it very much depends on the level of connection you choose to have to a place, to people and to things.
I’m sentimental and form attachments to mementos.
A friend of mine once burned all of his old writing, poetry, drawings and photographs in an effort to become free from the past. I was impressed and aghast.
I’ve stepped away from places, people and stuff in the past, and while that’s led me to where I am now, there have been things I’ve missed.
Thoughts, projects and ambitions are also difficult to streamline. Wanting it all often leads to having nothing and being a minimalist must also include an elegance of purpose and thinking.
I’ve often marveled at people who could leave their apartment or home for a vacation and rent it out for a week or more. Everything in it had a purpose and the personal items packed away neatly into a box and were stored somewhere unseen, off site or taken with them.
Having everything that matters to them be portable or easily secured while their decorations were more replaceable and impressed me as everything around me has a memory attached and would be hard to walk away from. I know I will be doing just that soon and that I’ll be making my life and myself more minimalist once again but It will not be
easy.