I have been writing, reading and listening a lot of late on keeping to the important things in life. My desire to minimize life has been going well, however slowly. I have been sticking to my sell or give something away each week mantra now for about a month and a half.

I still have a long way to go!

During this time I have been traveling quite a bit and my wife and I have gotten hooked on Podcast. Some for entertainment but many for the great information they provide. I have learned quite a bit over the past month listening back and forth to work.

Life can become tedious. We tend to either run from crisis to crisis or to have a period of intense activity and then collapse from the exhaustion. Add into that any health, work or familia issues and the stress makes us feel like we have to, provably, have our heads on a swivel to keep an eye on it all. That or we shut down and begin to just let life happen to us.

Something that struck me while listening and reading of late, is that happiness is fleeting and obtaining joy in life is the true quest. This requires attention to three aspects;

Gratefulness – it is hard to look at a life of happiness without coming at it first from a place of gratefulness. Developing a strong sense and understanding of the things we should be grateful for can take a bit of effort. This has been quite a challenge for me. Not because I do not have a lot to be grateful for, but because it does not jump quickly to mind.

I realized while contemplating this that I am either ambivalent or simply feel entitled. I know how wrong this is and I am admitting it here as a confession. That and I realized that I have so much that it is hard to actually list all that I should be grateful for.

This is quite a sad state and one I am, more than a bit, ashamed of.

It goes to show when we begin to look at our lives from a state of gratefulness, and we are living a good life, we realize just how much we truly have.

This has accelerated my desire to get rid of a lot of my stuff.

Mindfulness – I realized that I tend to walk through life in a less than mindful state. Not when I am driving or riding or being aware of my surroundings, but being mindful of what I am doing. My mind is in a state of continual wandering. I cannot stay on one thing for very long without my mind wandering to another topic. This is probably why my prayer life has been difficult; I am easily distracted.

I am sure I have always had a level of ADD, but trying to practice mindfulness has shown me just how bad this is.

So what is Mindfulness? It is a state of staying in the moment, staying aware and present in what we are doing and not allowing everything else to wander in. Fostering a state of mindfulness when we are at a task can improve our ability to do that task.

I also find in my writing that fostering this state is very important. When you guys see me shift off topic, this is when my mind has wandered.

Squirrel!…..

Simpleness – as I noted in Gratefulness, I have to much. Thus, my life “feels” complicated. I worry over the stuff I have and the stuff I have going on. I realize as I go through this process that I have crammed my life full of stuff and stuff to do.

I think, also, I have learned that in this later stage of life I am having trouble keeping it all straight an keeping myself mindful of what I have going on. Thus, I find that I tend to shut down more and more and actually do less and less.

If I put all my physical stuff aide and just think about my professional and vocational life here is what I find;

Professionally I thrive on stress and activity. When things slow down I quickly get bored and when I am bored things slip. I am far better at keeping a lot of things in motion and taken care of if I have a lot to do and a lot going on. I am more organized the greater the load, oddly. However, the down side is that I then get overloaded and stress gets the better of me.

Vocationally I tend to have too much going on as well. With trying to keep up with blogging I put no time into writing a book I have threatened to write for far too many years. In ministry I have three avenues of activity between Biker Chaplain, the Motorcycle Ministry I am a part of and the Biker Fellowship I assist at. As such, I find that I do not dedicate a concerted amount of time to any of them. Three things that should be complimentary I find confusing and do not do my best at any of them. Jack of all trades, master of none.

Then there are my various hobbies…

It all becomes too much and Gratefulness, Mindfulness and Simpleness becomes a very challenging concept.

However, I think this is a concept that deserves a concerted effort on my part. I am convinced that in the last month as I have put more time toward these concepts that it is a worthwhile effort.

If I can but begin to put things into their proper order, be grateful and mindful of a simplified life true peacefulness awaits on the other side. A peacefulness that should breed joy. And joy that will allow me to enjoy the life I have instead of feeling eaten up by it.

That is, at least, the plan.