Variety is a luxury

I am about knee-deep in boxes and packing piles. My "August Project" was to downsize from a fully furnished and over-stuffed two bedroom apartment down to a bedroom (or less). I am limited by space, both in transporting and storage, by time, and soon, by funds.

As I downsized my closet by more than half, I realized that I still have a lot of clothes. Sure, I donated a big pile of clothes, but I still have a closet, dresser and a stack of drawers full of clothes. Do I really need three orange-ish shirts? Do I really need six pairs of pants? Let's not even talk about shoes. I have my closet organized by color and I love looking down the row at the ROYGBIV rainbow of choices in the morning. It holds the promise of great possibility. :) Though the hangers hold many options of clothes, they also hold way more than a week or two's worth of clothes. However, limiting myself to only 10 shirts also limits me to only 10 options on any given day.

I also enjoy great variety in the kitchen. I keep a list on my fridge of all the fresh produce I have on hand to encourage me to make healthy choices. Considering that it is summer time in Iowa and my mother has an abudant garden, I consistently have a list too long for my "Produce Board". I can enjoy 5 different kinds of fruits or veggies in one day and have 5 more options the next day! Oh the life of luxury! Starting in just a couple of weeks, I will be living in Colorado on an even tighter food budget. Fresh, locally grown produce of all colors may become a hot commodity.

I like having options. I like having choices. I like my variety. But this is a luxury I never considered as such. *sigh*

I leave you with a part of a poem brought to my attention by Garrison Keiller in The Writer's Almanac on August 9, 2011. (I have it posted in my bedroom to remind me that it's OK to downsize.)

In Walden, Thoreau wrote: "Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society. If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me."

And, "If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more eleastic, more starry, more immortal, -- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself."