I’ve had a disordered relationship with food for all of my adulthood. It began after my brother died when I was seven and I developed stomach aches every morning at school. My teacher would take me down to the school nurse each morning for cinnamon toast until I felt better. (I came from a small town, and everyone knew everyone; my teachers were all friends with my mother). Although the morning feeding was helpful and after six weeks, I was able to stay in class all day, I associated food with the solution to my emotions. Whether it is grief, sadness, anxiety, happiness, or despair, my mind signals that I need to eat. Not based upon hunger, but exclusively based in response to an emotion I am feeling.

There have been times when I’ve dealt with this dysfunction better and sometimes worse. During some times I’ve stopped eating hardly anything, and during other times I eat nonstop. I know this yo-yo eating can’t be good for me, so I’ve tried to moderate my eating, not necessarily as a hunger response, but at least trying to eat in moderation.

How does this fit in with simplicity? I have come to realize that I think about what I am going to eat virtually all the time. It is very time-consuming to dwell on one activity in a never-ending loop. In praying in preparation for Lent this year, I decided to try the spiritual discipline of fasting. I’ve tried it in the past and always failed, but I wanted to try it again thinking that if I wasn’t constantly thinking about food, I’d have more time to think about God.

For the first two weeks of Lent, I’ve chosen one day each week where I only drink liquids. It has amazed me how much freedom that day gives me when I’m not worried about what I’m going to cook (or order) and when I’m going to eat. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought, and it makes that day much simpler.

I don’t know if I’ll be successful through all six weeks of Lent, but it has brought me a new perspective on my destructive eating habits and how they can be changed.

I hope that you’ve found a spiritual discipline this Lent that is giving you a simpler life, too.

Blessings, my friend,

Agatha

Incorporating simplicity into my life isn’t a one-time “cleaning out.” I want it to be a lifestyle change that makes a difference for years to come.

This week I am tackling my pantry. It isn’t huge, but it’s stuffed with assorted non-perishables that I’ve acquired over the years since the pandemic. In some cases, it was easy to buy “giant-sized” purchases from Amazon and Costco during the pandemic, but I also realized that there are remnants of unrealized dreams in my pantry, too.

There was the phase where I was transitioning to “more natural” eating. Not bad in itself, but some of the items I acquired turned out to not be very tasty. I tried them in a few recipes back in 2020 and the rest of the bag has stayed on the shelf. I think it’s time to admit that I just don’t like organic Goji berries.

In the past few weeks as I’ve been methodically going through my possessions, I realize that a lot of my purchases have been for attributes which I wish I had. I by potting soil and mulch, not because I need it, but somehow it represents taking care of the earth. I would like to think I am a good steward, and my possessions reflect that.

I have many “organic” items in my pantry. I don’t know if they are really better for me than “non-organic”, but I can see in them my desire to be healthier. I think just by buying them, I should be healthier!

I’m going to stop and think when making purchases. Am I buying this because it brings the real me joy, or am I buying it for the person I wish I was? In the past my buying habits may have reflected who I wanted to become rather than who I am.  I’m only going to buy things that are useful to the “real me” in the present moment.

With Ash Wednesday this coming Wednesday, I’m going to try to think more thoughtfully about what I buy to eat, what I eat and why. I’m going to try intermittent fasting at least a couple of days a week. I think practicing a better relationship with food (and my pantry) will be a good spiritual discipline for my Lenten season.

Blessings, my friend

Agatha

This coming week I’m going to be focusing on Simplicity in Possessions. I know that this isn’t easy and will actually be a commitment to a lifestyle change, but I need to start somewhere!

I realized that I have areas of my house where I have stored away things purchased during the pandemic. Some of them are “case quantities” of everyday items that were only available from Amazon or Costco in large quantities, and others are things that I thought I needed to prepare for a new lifestyle under the pandemic. I have a “pandemic junk drawer”, a place in my master closet where a few things have been carefully stacked for 4 years and a hall closet that I converted to an additional pantry.

Just this weekend I’ve identified a few items and new philosophies that will bring me some more space and a bit of simplicity into my life:

1.     I have a case of tea bags from the pandemic. This is in addition to the normal stock that I have in my food pantry in the kitchen. I’ve started drinking a cup of tea each evening, and I have an estimated 200 tea bags on hand. I plan to go through them to see if any have expired and for the remainder, I will share them with friends. (This is in addition to the hot chocolate mix, hot fruit tea mix, etc. also from the pandemic).

2.     When no one was coming to the house, I thought I was going to become a superb gardener. I bought soil, mulch, pine chips and a fertilizer spreader (that is still in the box). This week, I’m going to use what I can, but I’m not fooling anyone. I have a lawn guy that mows, mulches, aerates, overseeds, and fertilizes. Surely someone I know can use a small fertilizer spreader.

3.     I have a drawer full of masks, hand sanitizer, and assorted other pandemic-related fashion statements (mostly alumni masks). Oh, and expired COVID tests. So, I’m going through those also, throwing out the expired tests and keeping a few masks for future use. The government has extended some of the expiration dates on COVID tests so I’ll check those first, but if they are really expired, out they go. (You can check COVID test expriation dates here: https://bit.ly/4927fPp).

4.     I still have 100+ plastic bags from all the groceries I ordered on-line. We help serve food at the Church of the Holy Trinity, one of our downtown Episcopal Churches, once a month and the guests always ask for a plastic bag. A nice way to put them to good use.

I know that simplicity of possessions is not easy, but I hope to start changing my lifestyle to bring fewer things into my life and start moving more things out. I think a negative “net” (more moving out than coming in) will be the secret to long-term success for me.

In what ways are you using possessions to bring simplicity into your life?

Blessings, my friend,

Agatha