I have had some stunning reversals in my fortune lately, and they are turning out to be gifts.

Due to a legal and financial set-back, I am no longer able to afford living in my own home. I am going to have to rent it out in order to keep the building. I will be moving soon to a one-room cabin out in the woods.

“You can’t take it with you” really applies here. At least two-thirds of every material thing I own is being purged from my life. Clothing, dishes, books, furniture, filing cabinets full of papers. There is no room for it in my new digs. Turns out, most of that stuff is not of any use to me anyway. Every day now I look at something and say, “Wow, what is that doing here? Good bye!”. Physical clutter leads to stagnation. (The root of the word clutter comes from the word clot. Like a blood clot, it clogs up the movement of energy). Letting go of all this stuff is a very freeing process.

I will not have running water. During the transition, while I still live in my city home, I am becoming hyper-aware of every drop of water I use. By moving to the woods, I will be automatically conserving many natural resources. (As one of my friends said, “You can’t poop in the house and call yourself and environmentalist!”).

These are the upsides to change. But I also feel like my life is one big blanket toss right now. I have barely enough monthly income to feed myself. To generate some income, I’m going to have to learn how to be a landlord. I’m moving away from the social opportunities of city life, to a rustic location out in the woods. During a particularly difficult moment of stress, I asked the Teachers for some help with coping. What I was told helped me to put it in perspective. This is just the next step in my path. I have been on a journey of simplifying my life for the last five years. Following the transformations of cancer, I released the attachments of body image, career identity, and traditional income-making. My path as a spiritual activist opened up.

Now I am letting go of the constraints of modern home life with utilities. I will be living in direct contact with Nature every day. I will need to plan my social interactions. I will have to be more intentional about all of my choices. Simplifying my life is helping me reset my priorities.