There are many days when I get a little bit into the day and I just find myself wishing that I had fewer things to think about.
Even though I have definite ADHD-ish qualities, I tend to actually do my best work when I can sit down and focus on something for several contiguous hours without interruptions. It takes me a little while to get into the task and get truly focused but once I'm there I can stay with it for a really long time.
I often think of everything I have going on as a "cloud of thoughts" floating around my head, a bit like the thought bubbles in comic strips.
Sometimes it feels like there's a veritable little tornado floating around my head with all kinds of random stuff all of it clamoring for my attention. Of course the problem with things clamoring for attention is that none of them actually get it because I can't determine which one is screaming the loudest!
I think a large part of what causes my struggle is that so often I face questions not of whether I should do this or that, but go through my day with the knowledge that I have no choice but to do this and that.
I think I've been aware of this thought cloud being in my life for a very long time, and it was perhaps that awareness that drew me to the notion of "voluntary simplicity," many years ago. Of course the voluntary simplicity movement never really went as far as I hoped it would, and I was never a very successful adherent to it!
All of it just makes me pause and ponder the fact that more is not always better. The pundits who are supposedly in the know like to tell us that we're so much better off than we used to be because we have more of everything. From where I'm sitting that more isn't really that much of a benefit, and sometimes it's actually more of a hindrance than anything!
Of course the world of marketing is not very happy with me saying that because it depends — for its very lifeblood — on the idea that we're all addicted to more.
I suppose the first step on the road to simplification is just accepting and embracing the fact that you're going to have less. Less is somehow good because it clears the mind even though the whole idea is counter to the predominant social belief system.
"You can have it all," they say, but I'm not so sure that I actually wanted it all. And I'm not so sure I want to live with the stress and pressure of what's required of me in order to have it all. Whoever decided that was such a good idea, in the first place?
I expect many of these feelings are arising merely because of the stage of life I find myself in, at age 65. We spend our lives accumulating" only to discover that our accumulations end up feeling like a boat anchor pulling us down... and then we start getting rid of everything!
That's definitely the point I'm at... and I was never that much of a hoarder, to begin with!
I suppose it's never too late to start thinning out that thought cloud!
Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Sunday!
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Created at 2026.02.22 02:07 PST
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