At the beach last weekend they had rules against picking up any shells, rocks or animals (duh!). Driftwood, however, could be collected, with a limit of fifty pounds a day. Fifty pounds??? We walked along the beach, exploring the tide pools, enjoying, appreciating, reveling in the colors and variety and sounds of the crashing waves. Any interesting shells were occupied by some little creature - not too tempting. Toward the end of the curve of the beach where we decided to turn around, I found lots of interesting driftwood. Pieces with color, texture, interesting angles, odd shapes. I started picking up the pieces I liked, thinking I would take them home and add them to the glass jar with driftwood from other beach trips.
I am more of a collector than I'd like to admit. Walking back along the beach with two handfuls of driftwood seemed silly. I had to put them down to take more photos. It wasn't fifty pounds, but still way too much. I set it all down on a rock, and kept only what I could fit in one hand. A fifty percent reduction.
That, I think, will be my theme song for this Christmas. Fifty percent less: less food, less spending, fewer new decorations, fewer plans, less shopping. Probably not an exact fifty percent less, more of an attitude, being happy with less, making choices for the options with less. Traveling Lighter.
That's an awesome idea! Some of the ladies at work were saying that they tell their kids that they have to give something away for everything they get for Christmas. I thought that was a cool idea. Reduces excessive clutter and teaches them to be generous! We could all do the same thing though. Get rid of something old to make room for the new things! :D
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