Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words…

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.
-- Elise Boulding

Driving through town the other day with a car full of delightful passengers, I stated – with some dismay – that we could not joyride and take in the sights of the area because I had recently spent over $60 to fill my gas-guzzling SUV. While each of the passengers – including me – grew sour-faced, we looked around at the other vehicles on the road and realized that most of them were gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs as well! None of us on the road could ride free. We all had to make a straight shot to where we were going then go directly back to where we came from or risk having to refill the tank too soon.

One of my passengers remarked that driving a smaller car would eliminate the use of lots of gas while another countered with, "You can't get as much stuff in a smaller car." Somebody else then said, "Well, why do you have to carry so much stuff?"

Well, ding, ding, ding, that's the point! And the question is not only why do we have to carry so much stuff, but why do we have to have so much stuff to begin with?

When I first moved into my house almost 20 years ago, I believed I needed to fill it with stuff – furniture, fixtures, decorations, all the things I thought said "comfort" or "home." Years later, I look around at all this stuff and wonder WTH I was thinking. I have become a frequent visitor to the Goodwill donation sites around town, giving away just about everything I've accumulated over the years. But I still have tons of stuff in my house.

Which ultimately spills over to my truck. I carry a bin in the trunk to collect odds and ends but it often becomes cluttered with stuff from the house, stuff we should have taken back into the house when we got out of the car. Eventually all that stuff weighs my car down, which means I end up burning more fuel.

And speaking of extra pounds, what about all the pounds we keep on our bodies? Certainly that adds to the weight we carry in our cars. We've got to get rid of that trunk junk, too.

And what about all the negative emotions, worries, and past hurts/pains we carry around with us? That's extra weight to our psyches and shoulders, weight we shouldn't carry around. You know what happens with all that emotional weight to consider, carry, and deal with – we end up trying to cover up/hide from/compensate for the sense of lack/discomfort/fear/uncertainty/chaos the weight brings. And we do it by accumulating more stuff! More stuff to carry, house, and hold onto.

It's easy to make a run to Goodwill, call the ARC, give your stuff away on Freecycle, or upload it for sale on Craigslist. It's easy to pare down what you eat. And, sometimes – ((sometimes)), it's easy to monitor what you allow to enter your consciousness. But unless we make mindful lifestyle changes, we'll be constantly saddled with unnecessary stuff to tend. In order to make life uncomplicated/lighter/less cumbersome/simpler, we must think differently about the stuff around us. We must evaluate the necessity of all that we allow into our lives, make careful decisions about the things we choose to own, and eliminate for good the things that we don't need. And, while sometimes these are hard choices, we must make them for our health, sanity, and freedom.

Eliminating the unnecessary from your life, be it furniture, material possessions, cars, friends, or worry, makes life simpler, even happier. Fewer possessions means not having to keep up with stuff, clean it, care for it, and most importantly, have a place for it. Think on this – if you don't have a lot of stuff, you don't have to have a big house to put stuff in, which means smaller heating/cooling and electricity costs (read: less energy consumption), smaller mortgage/rent, and even fewer repairs. It also means being intentional about valuing and maintaining calm, clutter free, less-is-more space, and including only those things that meet your everyday needs, speak to who you are, and bring you tranquility, comfort, and joy. Having less stuff in your home means you can really be at home.

And when you begin to eliminate stuff from your home, reducing or disposing of the other stuff in your life becomes more deliberate as well. Who says we have to have 800 Facebook friends? We don't keep in touch with 800 friends at one time, do we? We don't have all 800 friends at our house at one time, do we? Really, if you think about it, we may only have 20 – 30 people in our everyday lives, 20 – 30 people (if that) who have easy access to us daily. Yeah, it feels good to keep in touch your old childhood friends; they are special. But, really, if you hadn't kept up with them before Facebook, would you really miss them now?

Okay, maybe... Anyway, this isn't a scribe about Facebook, but it wouldn't hurt to consider who you give right of entry /attention to. Some people make life harder than it has to be.

And consider our eating habits. Needing only to eat when necessary – and not just because we're hungry for something – might mean that we would eat on purpose and be healthier. This means we'd eat more grains, fruits, and fresh vegetables; more legumes which are excellent sources of fiber and protein; and, of course, drinking more water. And none of this means you have to spend an exorbitant amount of money. It could mean a weekly visit to the local farmers market or growing your own fruits and vegetables – from pots on the patio, if you want to; finding a natural food store and stocking up on grains and beans to add to your home- or farm-grown vegetables, and drinking water straight from the tap you pay for every month! Just add a filter to the faucet to eliminate the yucky taste of chlorine and whatever else the city uses to purify the water.

If you eat healthier, you'll find yourself losing unnecessary body weight, and there's no way you'll want to put it back on! Exercising even a little preserves a healthy weight. It also increases mental sharpness, improves your mood, and greatly diminishes the stress that can make you ball into the fetal position and want to forget it all.

And once there's less of you physically, you'll want less of yourself to be consumed. No more hectic schedules or burdensome obligations and commitments to clutter your mind and time – you didn't lose all that material and physical weight to do more stuff; you're paring it all down. Because the less you do, the less stretched and more focused you are. Oh yeah, we can do many things; we're awesome multitaskers. But, really, do you want to do so much? And, do you do all the things you do well, or do you just meet the mark with the hundreds of things you're obligated to do? Think about it – if you did one or a few things, wouldn't you do them/be so much better? Happier?

Ultimately, we must become more frugal, or thrifty and prudent, in our ways. The more we have, the less we have – less freedom/happiness/peace. The more we have, the less we and our opportunities are. We become what we have and all the material/physical stuff we have keeps us limited in some capacity. Being frugal means being free to live.

I'm for giving up on the "American Dream" of consumerism and obsession with material abundance. I'm for living simple – owning, having, eating, doing, and being that which does not hinder living. I want to be thoughtful about the way I use energy, time, space, and myself. I've enlisted the help of Leo Babauta, Tsh Oxenreider, and Courtney Carver. It's all a process, but these are working for me and a lifestyle change that'll lead to peace, happiness, and freedom.

Freedom to joyride with delightful passengers because we're not hindered by gas prices!

So, why do I drive a gas-guzzling SUV? Vanity, I guess. There are certainly thousands of cars on the market I'd look good in that boast better fuel efficiency than my brown Explorer. But while giving up the brown truck is not (necessarily) in the near future for me, driving more efficiently by cutting down on my trips via a pared down schedule and carrying less junk in the trunks is certainly on the menu. The joyrides will just have to wait.

Let the peace of Christ rule on your hearts

Let the peace of Christ rule on your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
-- Colossians 3:15

When I got this "Verse of the Day" early this morning, in no way was I feeling thankful. As a matter of fact, what I was feeling this morning was so irreverent and cynical, if I told you how I really felt, you might block my emails, call me a hypocrite/fraud, and burn every last "Thought…" you'd ever received from me.

And peaceful? Yeah. Whatever.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad… maybe. But I was having a hard time with the ideas of "thankful" and "peace."

I'm not sure where my energies were during those sacred and hallowed hours before the alarm went off/don't know where my unconscious had been, but when the alarm went off and I turned over to smack it – yes, this morning I smacked! the alarm – this verse was waiting for me via email on my phone. As is my custom – with one eye open and adjusting to the brightness of the little screen – I read the verse and several other morning meditations before getting out of bed. None of them did anything to eject/reject that "whatever" feeling. "Yeah, thanks for waking me up this morning, Lord, and thanks for letting me have a good night's sleep, Jesus. Thanks for that baby girl of mine, and, oh yeah that job. Thanks, Father, for all those people who love me, but G-o-d, I just ain't feelin' it this morning, and I surely can't fake it."

You remember how Winnie the Pooh's friend Eeyore went about the Hundred Acre Wood as a gloomy and melancholy donkey, rarely optimistic about anything, and mostly dispassionate about everything? Eeyore was so pessimistic/cynical/gray that he looked at himself in the stream, thought his reflection "pitiful," crossed the river, looked again, and thought "no better from this side." That's how I felt this morning.

And there are just some mornings/days that it's just that way. Where "so what?" is your mantra and "whatever" is the theme. Is that a bad thing? Well, it depends.

If every day is lackluster and you can find no joy, no matter how brightly Jesus shines it in your face, and you can't even "fake it 'til you make it," perhaps you're in a little deeper than is typical and that's a bad thing. And, if to you, Eeyore sounds like an optimist, or he's "just keepin' it real," something isn't right deep down in your psyche and it's time to get some help.

Now most days I'm like Tigger, pouncing on everything and full of drive and enthusiasm. Some days, I'm like Rabbit who is very busy and on the go, forgetting to even stop and take in all that I should be thankful for/am at peace about. Today, though, Eeyore was my guide.

And it would be hours before I felt differently.

Hours because I forgot that God has called me into obedience, no matter how I feel.

Jeremiah 11:4-5 (MSG) says, "Obey what I tell you. Do exactly what I command you. Your obedience will close the deal. You'll be mine and I'll be yours. This will provide the conditions in which I will be able to do what I promised your ancestors: to give them a fertile and lush land. And, as you know, that's what I did…" No matter what, as a Christ follower/student/lover, my obligation is to do as He says. If Elohim says to drop everything and follow Him, I must do so. If Jehovah Jireh (the God who provides) told me to quit my job and trust Him, my mustard seed faith would be charged and activated because I would have to quit in order to be obedient to His command. God told me to be peaceful and thankful – and even, and especially when, I didn't feel like doing so this morning. My obligation was to find a way to be peaceful and thankful. Not mope around and be stank all day.

I heard a minister say yesterday that being thankful doesn't mean you don't have problems, it just means you can face your problems with a better attitude and disposition. If only I had remembered that while I was reading this morning, perhaps I'd have been able to paint this day more glorious.

A few hours ago, I reread the verse, read it in different translations and prayed about having the peace of Jesus reign in my heart no matter what I'm feeling. And the more I read it, the more I prayed on it, the more it began to take hold of my heart because, in fact, that's what peace does – it rules your heart and makes it content/cheerful /satisfied/worry-free. And when your heart feels like that, you have no choice but to be thankful!

So, tomorrow morning, when the alarm sounds and I roll over to quiet it, I will read my "verse of the day" in ready obedience/deference/agreement. I may even turn on the light.

If at first you don't succeed

If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.-- Rob Brezsny

The standard definition of success in America has been to live in a big house in the suburbs – or, now, in these cosmopolitan times, to live in a posh and architecturally clever urban loft with high ceilings, a brilliant view of the city’s skyline through picturesque windows, and amenities usually reserved for only the finest hotels; drive a luxury vehicle, possibly of Japanese, German or even Italian origin; have 2.5 children – with a doting and faithful spouse, of course; and earn a butt-kicking 6-figure salary at a top-performing Fortune 100 company. To some, anything less is preposterous, intolerable, and so unsophisticated.

Aren’t you glad it’s just “some?”

And, have you ever actually met anybody with half a kid?

(Have you ever met the person who grew up being the half kid?… Okay, that’s another “Thought…,.”)

In this day of a flattened and sluggish economy, success might still look like the standard definition for the “some” people. But for the majority of us people, it’s less of that and more of something else.

Perhaps for the rest of us, success looks like living in a home that, at a minimum, is clean, comfortable, and reasonably priced. Perhaps success is being able to look around your home and appreciate the things that are valuable to you. Maybe success is that you have decent and appropriate clothes for work AND leisure because you work hard and get to play in return, and you have enough good food to feed your family healthy and nutritious meals.

Perhaps success for you is watching your family grow and participate in the many elements that make life interesting and purposeful. Maybe success means involving your kids in an array of activities so they can experience diverse and mind-stretching opportunities, even when you have to drive all over town 6 days a week. And, at times, success may simply be driving a minivan – to accommodate your kids, their stuff, the dog, and their friends – on a full tank of gas.

Or maybe success may be as simple as managing your money well, leaving no bill behind, and paying for everything with cash. Boy, couldn’t America use some success in that manner. Then we’d all be living in lofts with partial kids.

Maybe success for you is that you have a job that pays which means that you can live with dignity and not be accused of wanting a handout or pity. Even if the job doesn’t pay much, success for you is that you can hold your own and contribute to the financial well-being of society. Success may even be as simple as walking into the bank this afternoon and telling the bankers to cash your itty-bitty check ‘cause you worked hard for every measly cent!

And, then, maybe success is, tonight, taking some of your earnings, sending the kids to their friend’s house, buying your drink of choice, preparing yourself a healthy and nutritious meal, kicking back in your clean, comfortable, and priced right home, and not having a care in the world about anybody else’s definition of success. Bang the loft with a city view, the Germans, and any number of kids, success is right where you are.