Single Mom Striking Out

I don't have the perfect home. To the contrary, my home is messy and very lived-in. I've considered, as a result, countless times on how to go on a minimalist journey. There are so many fulfilling stories about how people found the courage and resolve to ditch their homes, sell their belongings and traverse their world and live out of a van.  It's the kind of dramatic lifestyle changes that inspires movies, I guess.  Along with the removal of physical clutter, there will rise mental clutters. Old dining room sets that has been with you for eons, the painting that was gifted to you by someone, picture frames, your first musical instrument, your beloved kitchen appliances, bar stools that you've not used for years on end. and a home filled with the nice things  that helped define a successful life. Isn't this how people define how well they've lived their lives? For me, the story is a little different. For close to a year now, I've been trying to ...

Today was interesting because my family went out for a meal to celebrate a few birthdays today. It was delicious and fun! But sometimes, you don't see the things you are supposed to see until someone else points it out. I hate it that I am sensitive to too many things around me, but even I sometimes miss out on signals.  Some people are just better at hiding things behind a smile than others. Until someone tells you a funny thing  about it. Like someone from the family was missing from the birthday lunch today and I thought nothing about it, and even asked after the missing person. A reason was given and I accepted it as logical.  But then, my father, who is older and perhaps more perceptive, said that something might be amiss. There could have been a rough patch.  Mind blown.  Living with someone else is not an easy thing. Living with your own family is a problem on its own. Your brother is annoying, your mother is naggy, your father is obn...

From time to time, I print out useful and touching articles from the internet to be read and then kept for future readings. Today, I reread an article I printed out years ago. It's about a woman who buried her husband only to find out that he had been cheating on her all these while. Her grief took on a new shape and yet, she still yearned for the husband that she thought she had while anger was hanging over her like a dark cloud. There was to be no closure, no confrontation, no explanation, no hacking it out, no way to hold her husband or let him go. She went on a 10-day silent retreat after that, where participants do nothing but meditate and stay silent throughout. Everything that they felt, they were released and thought about in their own silent minds. A lot of people pursue happiness in the form of short term fixes. a night-out with their friends, a joint, a holiday, a new handbag, delicious cheese cake, etc. None of those things stay forever and chasing them over and o...