Recently I was in the Buckhead Region of Atlanta for a conference. Buckhead is a rapidly growing part of Atlanta characterized by intense traffic jams, spectacular office towers, tall glassy hotels, fantastic restaurants and luxury shopping. Before I moved to Richmond almost a decade ago, I lived in suburban Norcross and commuted to Buckhead. Even at that time Buckhead was growing up, up, up with beautiful and strange office towers, road construction and a never ending array of retail stores.

Photo courtesy of “Cut to the Chase” on flickr! Licensed under a Creative Common License

During this visit I found myself wondering through Lenox Square Mall with some time on my hands. As I wondered around I notices a sense of uneasiness, a rapid pulse and total body agitation. Not normally subject to panic attacks and usually comfortable in almost any environment, I had to stand still and take stock of what was happening to me. Was I getting sick from my last meal? Was I having a panic attack? What was it that was causing me this discomfort? I tried to shake the feeling but was unable.

Determined to forge ahead and ignore this internal commotion I walked on and started to notice the overly intense consumerism, the projection of style over substance, the “in your face” onslaught of excessive everything. And then I had it. I myself had lived a sliver of this lifestyle that some so cherish in Buckhead, no that I cherished. Roaming the malls and luxury shops for that special Christmas or Birthday gift. Having to have that special something for someone that we all now don’t even remember what it was. Some useless trinket, some gadget that probably broke on Christmas day. Some memento now forgotten, lost in the piles of life’s stuff.

So there is was, this visceral reaction was to a former lifestyle and the realization that the road to happiness is not defined by what we have, but by what we are, by who we are, who we love and are loved by, and how we need to go about life grateful for our connections, our oneness. At this realization a sense of calming peace came about me and I knew that I was meant for me to be here and to realize that the journey is not always straight, not always true, but always telling if you are willing to listen.

Technorati Tags: lifestyle, simplicity

At our house we are starting on a journey to simplify our lives in many ways. We have accumulated way too much stuff and we lead complicated, typical lives as parents as taxi drivers. We have to spend too much time fixing and repairing stuff and we have to push our kids to be creative, even when we know that they have the skills already to be wonderfully creative. As we approach our simplification experiments, I’m reminded of what those that have gone before us have said.

Henry David Thoreau once said:

“Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.”

And his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson replied:

“one ‘Simplify’ would have been sufficient.”

So here we go - simplify, simplify, simplify and once that is done we will reduce it again to one simplify! Why TV first? It is easy! Have you every wondered, how do I get my kids to be more creative, read more, engage in team play with each other and not bicker so much? We know the brain numbing that can occur with too much TV. As someone that grew up on Hawaii Five-O, Gillian’s Island and so much more, I have come to treasure my movements reading, writing, traveling, exploring relationships and the grand outdoors so much more than anything else in life. So we turned off the TV.

On Tuesday (Sept. 4th), the first day of School we turned it off for everyone. That means no news for mom and dad to start the day, no Law and Order to end the day and no TV to quell the angst of boredom with the kids. So far the results have been exceptionally positive. There has been only a little slippage. One or two of us have reached for the TV controller, and hit the power button, only to realized that in that moment of presumed control we were operating without control, autonomous actions veiled in some sense of self control of our so called “entertainment” life….

Initial Results Only Positive

On Tuesday we went to our local public library and checked out piles of books. A habit already with us, but one now with a hereto never before seen amount of motivation for the kids to avoid boredom. And in those short 4 days since Tuesday, all of the books but one have been read and put to rest. As well, my oldest has been culling books from her new found High School friends, and sharing her own with them as well. I suspect our no TV rule has forced first year High School conversations with others that would not have occurred for my somewhat relationship resistant daughter. And best of all, I’ve caught my daughters hugging each other several times and conspiring together on how to have fun and then making it happen.

And as an end to our fast paced work day, we get to come home and enjoy the quiet in the house punctuated by an occasional voyage back to old Rock and Roll on FM Radio. I’ll report back in a few weeks on how the experiment is going and what the long term prospects are for limited TV in the house. One thing is certain however, if we turn TV back on, the time it’s on will be very Limited. Stayed tuned for more Experiments in Life Simplification.

Some Useful Sites for Life Simplification

Ohio State University Extension - Life Savors: How to Simplify Your Life
The Simple Living Network
Zen Habits
Center for Screen Time Awareness
AdBusters.org Turn Off TV Week Promotion

Technorati Tags: creativity, family, simplification, zen

Do you or someone in your family read a lot? Do you have books you you want to get rid of but don’t want to throw away? You might want to try BookMooch. This is a great site for trading used books. Its simple to use and effective for helping you keep your reading fresh and making sure your used books go to good use.  We have been putting our used books in inventory for months now and have given away 17 books and mooched 6. 

The only cost to you is in the postage for sending out books that people mooch from you.  With US Postage media rates it typically costs a couple of dollars to send a sizable book. And if you are lucky enough to get several books mooched from the same person at the same time, the cost per book goes down a lot. 

Recently I’ve been sending books to a local Illinois public library which is building their Japanese Manga collection.  This is a great way to get rid of both your own books and your kids books they have outgrown.  And if you have a lot of books to place in inventory, you can even donate some of your points to charity.

Here is a sampling of books in my inventory:

Get a book from BookMooch.com

BookMooch is growing quickly, so you might experience so server slowness but for my family, its worth the wait. Trade you books at BookMooch.

Technorati Tags: reading, simplification