Keep It Simple...Sister

They should think their (course) food sweet; their (plain) clothes beautiful; their (poor) dwellings places of rest; and their common (simple)  ways sources of enjoyment.
-Lao Tzu ( Chapter /Verse 80...translation of Tao Te Ching by James Legge...1895)

Hmm!

It is challenging for most of us to do that, isn't it?  We too often live in a perpetual state of needing/wanting/ striving for more, don't we?

I spent the last five - seven years lamenting over what I was losing, focusing on scarcity and comparison making as material things were disappearing from my life: a career, secure income,  savings, investments, titles, designations etc.  Even my dwelling, which became poorer in appearance with my inability to maintain it the way I  wanted to, was on the line of disappearing as well. I lamented about that...I was looking at how much others seem to have around me and not focusing on the fact that I actually had more than many. I thought I needed a certain amount of material abundance to be okay and until I got it back or stopped it from being taken away, I would not be okay. What I had was not enough!

Well...it was only not enough in my mind, a mind  that could never seem to be content with the "simple" ...with what is.  The Universe more or less teaching me to Keep It Simple ...Sister.

I had food though maybe course.  I had clothing though maybe plain.  I had a place of rest and I had a means of enjoyment through the simple things around me.  That was all I needed...all I ever needed and it took me some time to realize that.

As long as we are striving for more and discontent with where we are and what we have...we cannot find peace , joy, wellness (what many of us call 'happiness').  Where I find my delight these days is not in "things" but in healing my mind.

Hmmm! All is well!

If one's life is simple, contentment has to come.  Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital - satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements.  And finally there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation.
-Dalai Lama (Insight from the Dalai Lama calendar (2018) Andrew McMeel Publishing)