simplify, SIMPLIFY!

"We spend the first half of life collecting everything we can get our hands on, then the second half trying to figure out how to give it all away."

From the novel Multiple Choice by Claire Cook.

Is this the most succinct, marvelously pertinent observation ever? Yes! It perfectly describes the quandary in which I find myself here in the middle of life.

As young adults, we must have the STUFF. The furniture. The kitchen appliances. The framed art and lamps. The nice coffee table, end tables, kitchen table, dining room table. The book-of-the-month, year and century club and our favorite magazines. Computers and TV's. And oh, toys, the endless river of toys for the kids. A ping-pong table would be fun. And skis, skates and sleds. A desk for everyone in the house.

And before we know it, we're buried in an avalanche of "must-haves," otherwise known as "didn't needs." 

What can I do without? Better, what can I pass on to someone who will really use it? I've made a few stabs at it, but the time is coming to seriously simplify my life.

I think I'll re-read Walden this summer. 

"Our life is frittered away by detail .... simplify, simplify."

Henry David Thoreau, Walden.