Pre-Minimalism

​I ask myself, am I a pre-minimalist?

​My life has changed significantly over the last number of years. Not who I am but how I live. I guess the milestone of sixty will do that to you.  I left a full-time career. I took on a part-time farm chore job because that is my happy place and it is good exercise. I have delved deeply into my creativity through authorship and photography. Now, before one jumps in here and suggests or wonders how I survive, I did have some savings to live this way. For the moment I am doing ok.  Though, that has created an awareness of how I live, materially, leading to how I live emotionally and socially.   
 
My first thought was minimalism. Am I living a minimalistic life? Let’s look at that first.
 
The article, What Is Minimalism from: www.becomingminimalist.com/what-is-minimalism/ starts us off with a simple, dare we say, minimal, explanation.
 
“MINIMALISM IS OWNING FEWER POSSESSIONS…minimalism is intentionally living with only the things I really need—those items that support my purpose. I am removing the distraction of excess possessions so I can focus more on those things that matter most.”
 
Interesting thought comes to me when I type that. That is exactly what I say to authors who write for my magazine, Equine Leadership.  Take out what is not needed. Remove words that are repetitive and not required. What we always find is, less is more; more profound, clearer, and more to the point.
 
In the same article quoted above, minimalism includes these aspects:

• It’s about intentionality
• One gains freedom from the passion to possess
• We move away from duplicity and counter-culture

 
“It invites us to slow down, consume less, but enjoy more.” Joshua Becker
 
Although this lifestyle can seem external, it really is about internal changes. Shifting our frame of mind to live differently.  As I have experienced some of those changes over the past few years and am still looming in their transformative powers, I term this phase of who I am, pre-minimalism (but who needs labels). When is the moment that one suddenly becomes a minimalist? Did you know that opposite of a minimalist lifestyle is maximalist. Sounds logical but I didn’t know that.
 
So, let me delve into where I was and where I’m at now in regards to maximizing my lifestyle changes to create a more minimalist way of living.
 
I was raised by parents who were raised by parents that cooked big meals and made food to be stored. It would fill a pantry and freezer or two. One memory I have is of my mother making very large pots of vegetable soup from scratch. The bones for the stock, the marrow that my father and I got to have as a treat on soda crackers. Everyone else thought it was gross, so as my mother would say, “all the more for you two”. We would have a meal of vegetable soup to start, then the rest would get divided into freezer containers to save for a later time or put into the fridge for meals that week. If you know, you know; soup gets better the longer it sits. Two or three days later that soup was divine. Especially because my mother would make dumplings to top it all off. One large pot of soup serving multiple people and multiple meals. My mom always had two fridges, two freezers, and a pantry full of a plethora of cooked, can, and baked goods. It wasn’t that we were a large family but if you wanted an example of preparedness, she was it. If you wanted a meal, just go look in the freezer.

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Not the frozen food freezer at the store, no quick oversalted meals for us. It was always good home cooking that she had learned from her mother. Did I learn from her? Yes, but I also spent my young adult years in a hurried and rushed world.  Quick meals were needed to fit everything into a day. I believe there is a balance and I found it then, and subsequently am finding it now in a different way.  Looking to the generation before me to consider the value of a large pot of vegetable soup yet knowing when a quick and easy solution might just fit a time bound situation. I know I have the option of both although I am tending towards my mother and her mother’s ways of living.
 
My parents were also part of a generation that was rather materialistic. The amassing of things and collections was commonplace.  Have we moved from that perspective in this generation? I think for many there is more awareness and light being shone on the fact that the life cycle of any items needs to be considered. Currently, when I buy anything now, it is out of necessity and done with a consideration for the full use of said item. If I don’t want it or have no need for it anymore, what will I do with it? I used to have a storage unit until I realized the items there were simply, out of sight – out of mind. I was also paying good money for it. So, I brought it all home to my 750 square foot apartment. I lived with it beside me for a while. Then I decided what should stay and what could go. Much of it was given to someone that would have a use for it.  Very little went to the landfill. In the end, any material item that I have currently was received, kept, or given away with gratitude.
 
In the vein of material items, I used to love retail therapy. If I needed a break from work, I would go shopping. In the end, I accumulated stuff. Stuff I didn’t need. It wasn’t therapy and I have realized that over the last few years. I find my happy hormone spikes in reading breaks, nature walks, sitting in stillness, and writing.  I also don’t spent money on something I don’t need. Now? I don’t go to malls; I rarely go shopping other than grocery shopping. As well, I fully enjoy my grocery shopping.  I am present, I smile and talk to people. It isn’t a chore; it’s an adventure.  Want to read labels, compare brands, and look at new foods, come to the grocery store with me. Want to run around like a mad person that sees grocery shopping as a sprint to the finish line? I am probably not your shopping pal then.
 
If I feel the desire for retail therapy and find myself in a store, I become mindful and ask myself about need, desire and want. I also find myself considering the life cycle of said item. As I have been through the collections and items of a past generations, I understand what it is to leave the next generation with multiple material items. Items that I loved but will the family left with those things necessarily love them? Or love them, only because I did? What about cherished items? My mother collected fancy, vintage, and some rare, small liqueur bottles from every corner of the earth. Well over two hundred of them.  It was something her and my father enjoyed. I inherited the collection that ended up sitting in Rubbermaid containers for years. Most were still sealed but what a whiff when I opened those boxes. What was I to do with them all? Keep them because my mother loved them? When the time was right, and the time is always right, I sold the collection for a nominal amount to a person that collected exactly the same type of liqueur bottles. They went to a loving home along with my mother’s story to someone that would cherish them and treat them well. I kept about twenty of them and found a crafty way to make them my own and my mother’s at the same time.
 

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My father had a hat collection, not a many as the bottles, but a cherished collection the same. We believe it eventually dispersed amongst family and strangers but no one is quite sure. What I am trying to get at here is where do cherished collections of material items go when we no longer are there to enjoy them?  Tying into the minimalist movement is something called: Swedish Death Cleaning. Check out this article to learn more on this intriguing way of considering what you have now and where it might find a new home: https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/what-swedish-death-cleaning-should-you-be-doing-it-ncna816511   Of course, things take time to release, especially when there are memories tied to them. Those memories will always be there but wouldn’t it be better to find someone that will cherish that item or collection after you are gone. That might be family but it also might be somebody you haven’t met yet. I have recently sold a few of my book collections. This way they don’t just gather dust and someone gets to enjoy them. You might be in a position to find space for a loved one’s collection or items. Keep a few to remind you of the love you have for that person and send the items on their way. Those items can enjoy their life cycle outside of a box.
 
Moving on to what I have around me at this time in my life. What don’t I have in my home? A television, a microwave, and a lot less books than I used to have. If I buy one, I have to let one go. I use the local library much more.  I live in a small apartment and everything I have is in my space. I see it, I enjoy it, and it holds a space in my heart. Eventually, but not yet, my children will be given pieces or asked if they want them. I still have many family heirlooms and things. Some will be passed down and kept for time immemorial in the family. I have items from at least five generations passed. They stay with us. But there are items that my children will have the choice to make; stay or go. I would like to do that while I am still around.
 
There is another way that I have embraced pre-minimalism, and that is in who I am in this world. Body, mind, and soul.
 
I don’t write all this to suggest that one way is better than another. I share it, as I explore my changing lifestyle. I consider how and what suits me. I learn and am inspired by other’s experiences and perspectives. I consider my obligation to the world to evolve in my most authentic way. For me, that is living the life that feels right and true. A life that has fewer material items in it, more heart around it, and takes the time to experience it all. Every moment, every item, every morsel of home cooked food, and every connection to each being and person I meet along the way.
 
What do I believe on a grander scale?  I do believe the world would be a better place if we were all to live with less. That takes a certain amount of courage to go against the grain. To say No Thank You. Could we replace the material (that included technology) with a walk in nature, a puzzle, a family game of cards? Would living with less bring more connection back into our lives?  Would slowing down offer us more time for relationships filled with love and compassion?  I my heart, the answer to everyone of those is a one hundred percent, YES.
 
Is it minimalism, pre-minimalism? Perhaps it is, as someone shared with me once, in sufficiency. I have a sufficient amount of what I need to live a happy and healthy life. Most of what I need, I can find within and together with my fellow beings on this planet. No need to label it really. But, if I had to, it would be pre-minimalism.
 
Reframing the quote from the beginning: when we have less and move through life at a less hurried pace. We end up with: more time, more space to breath, more joy, and more love in our hearts.  Sounds pretty good to me. 

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From my heart to yours, 
Lynda J Watson