Simplify...again

I am overwhelmed. When I left Cebu I was already agonizing over what I should do with my things; not so much because I wanted to keep them, but because I didn't want to have to deal with getting rid of them.  After being gone for 10 months, and living a minimal lifestyle in the Philippines, I looked around my apartment and I had mixed emotions looking at 'stuff' and more stuff.  I felt guilty for all the wastes lying around. Looking at the pantry and the refrigerator, I felt the same way---wasteful.

In 1991 my husband and I visited the Philippines and  we went to see my childhood friend. It was lunch time when we arrived, and in the middle of that one-room 4x4 shack, all her 8 kids were gathered around a plate of rice and a can of sardines containing 4 pieces the size of my index finger.  My husband was touched in a way he could not explain, except to say "we can't feel guilty for having more than what your friend has, but  we can stop being wasteful." I grew up from a very humble beginning, but after I left  my ancestral home, I've forgotten what "humble" means. After that visit, I started being more grateful to God for my lot in life and came to an enlightened resolve that a person needs very little in life to live; a space to lay down or sit  in, a nail on the wall to hang 2 changes of clothes and a pot and a pan to cook your food in. Everything else besides that,  is simply for comfort and for show.

So as I proceed to clear out my apartment, I am more than ever resolute to simplify. Intellectually I can articulate it-- now I just need to do it. So where  do I begin. I begin by praying for a tornado to touch down. Here in my apartment complex. While I am quietly sipping capuccino in Umbria.