Mina Parker - Less Is More: Meditations on Simplicity, Balance, and Real Abundance

Less Is More is a glorious celebrationin words and imagesof simple and profound answers. Is there any way to live the good life in an environment of scarcity? Mina Parker answers an unequivocal Yes! She writes, We can embrace simplicity as a desired outcome rather than a hardship we can't control. We can throw ourselves into new creation and transform our circumstances into new opportunities by embracing a credo of recycling and renewal. Most of all, we can give back and move forward through a daily practice of gratitude and the intense joy it brings us.

Daniel Talbott's luscious photos celebrate the beauty of nature, the earth we walk on, the flowers and fruitsthe abundance all around us in the city or the country, at the shore or on the roadside. Simplicity and abundance, he shows us, are in the eye of the beholder.

May the meditations and the images in this book comfort and inspire you on your path to finding true simplicity, balance, and abundance.

First published in 2009 by Conari Press,

an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

500 Third Street, Suite 230

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2009 by Mina Parker. Photographs copyright 2009 by Daniel Talbott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Parker, Mina.

Less is more : meditations on simplicity, balance, and focus / Mina Parker.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-57324-453-4 (alk. paper)

1. Voluntary simplicity movement. 2. Simplicity. 3. Self-management. 4. Optimism. I. Title.

BJ1496.P37 2009

179'.9--dc22

2009010090

Cover and interior design by Maija Tollefson

Typeset in Joanna

Cover photograph Daniel Talbott

Printed in Hong Kong

SS

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Tis the gift to be simple, tis the gift to be free,
Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

Elder Joseph Brackett

What a wonderful thing it would be to live in the world of this songsimple, free, and nestled into just the right place. We long for simplicity, we strive for freedom. Yet most of us feel a little (or a lot) worried. Our lives are anything but simple. They are hectic, overworked, overcomplicated. We feel anything but free; we are prisoners to our obligations, our fears, and our stress levels. Whether these sensations are old, familiar preoccupations, or hitting us with a new intensity in uncertain and difficult times, there's no time like the present to figure out how to feel better, and soon. There's no better moment to pack your bags and take the first steps toward that valley of love and delight, which can be found right here and right now.

But how? Our circumstances force us into a corner, and things seem to be getting worse and worse. Everything's shrinkingour budgets, our resources, our hope. The only things growing seem to be the mounting pile of debts and our fear of the unknown. Is there any comfort to be had? Is there any way to live the good life in an environment of scarcity?

Yes, there is. We only have to remember that in all sorts of situations, less really can be more. We can embrace simplicity as a desired outcome rather than a hardship we can't control. We can understand that our outlook, our attitude, and our ability to see the glass as being half full, again and again, day after day, is the key to our happiness. We can seek out comfort by remembering that all of this is meant to be, that hardships are life's best teachers, and that suffering is a temporary state. We can regain our footing and find our balance by recognizing that shadows ultimately define and enrich the brightest days. We can throw ourselves into new creation and transform our circumstances into new opportunities by embracing a credo of recycling and renewal. Most of all, we can give back and move forward through a daily practice of gratitude and the intense joy it brings us. We can do all this by embracing the power of Less Is More, and I hope the meditations and the images in this book will comfort and inspire you on your path to finding true simplicity, balance, and abundance.

Imagine you found a map hidden away in a dusty corner of the attic. It has all the requisite attributes: yellowed parchment, fraying edges, and a big red X marking the spot. Hidden treasure, and only you know how to find it. If you found that map at the age of thirteen you would step right into that adventure, doing everything in your power to find the cache of gold. If you found it today, would you do the same? I hope so.

In our adult lives we're always on the lookout for what can feel like more elusive treasures: extra time, extra money, a chance to make a better life for ourselves and our children. We already have the map, though we may have lost it momentarily in some secret back room of our psyche. The X sits squarely over the life we want to lead, the life that is free for the taking if we only take the time to find it.

To follow the paces toward that hidden treasure in our everyday lives, all we have to do is rediscover the wonders of clarity and the rewards of simplicity. Step by step, we can easily reclaim the good life through a renewed attention to the little things that matter most. Once found and claimed, that's a treasure chest that can never be pirated away.

Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours.

Swedish Proverb

This proverb is one of my absolute favorites, and if I followed it to a tee there isn't a doubt in my mind that I would be happier by leaps and bounds every day. The first is a biggie: fearing less. My fear is often linked to an out-of-control to-do list, one that's so long it spreads onto bits of paper that travel from desk to purse to nightstand. Its unwieldiness makes me shrink just thinking about it, and I probably spend more time fretting about the list than accomplishing anything on it.

Choose what you're going to do less of today, and reap an unexpected reward of more.

So I made a commitment to replace the fear and worry with a planI would do one task, or take one significant step toward completing a more complex task, every day. Just one. I immediately worried that one thing a day would never be enough, that the monster list would get even longer, but I resolved to stick with it and see what happened. I put the list in a drawer out of sight for the day and focused on the task, and it turns out that when I went back to the list before going to bed I was able to cross off five things at a timethings I had managed to do on the side, as I went, without too much concentration or effort. What a wonderful feeling!