Simple Living

As my three new community members and I sat around the table tonight sharing papaya for our dessert we began telling stories.   In our house we speak English one day and the next day Portuguese.  Today it was Portuguese so some of us had to be on our toes to tell a creative story. Ceny, a Maryknoll Sister and Missioner told the following story which sparked a great conversation about what is simple living.

Ceny was a missioner in Tanzania, Africa for I think 30 years.  As she wove the words of her story she laughed as she spoke of days when they did not have a refrigerator, a stove, or lights.  The tale painted a picture of long days at work only to return home and need to start a fire from charcoal and/or karacein and wait for an hour until the fire was going strong enough to cook on.

The story continued when one day Ceny and her roommates moved into a house that had a stove, refrigerator, and electric lights.  Someone commented that they were no longer living a simple life. Ceny said no, we are-look.  She then walked over and turned the lights on with a touch of a button.  She said, see life is really simple here, we can turn on the lights with the flick of the switch. Simple!

I love this story because it begs the question really what is simple living, and how do we answer that for ourselves?  Really what makes us rich in this world and what makes us poor?  I do think that some people consume more than needed in this world. And we need to evaluate our individual lives and decide for ourselves what really is simple living?  I think each one of us can ask "is what I have hurting others or perhaps even myself and am I willing to share what I have with others"?

When I got rid of my apartment, my car and most of my possessions 3 years ago I had to really decide what was really important in my life.  Now that I have moved again I had to do the same thing.  It is always a lesson in simplicity for me and yet even with a few suitcases and the items I brought with me this time I feel like I have more than enough and maybe too much.  And so I really liked this topic tonight because it reminds me to slow down for a moment and reflect on how can simplicity benefit me?  And how do I view simplicity as a larger understanding than just the items I own or use?

Really we all have different realities, for example for us who live in Brazil having a papaya for dessert may appear as a simple dessert, but in other places in the world it would be a luxury.