How to Simplify Your Life
By Kathryn H. Kidd

We have a topic request from one of our readers, who has found that the rat race is just too ratty to endure.  She is looking for suggestions, and I know you won’t let her down.  Here’s what she had to say:

I am seeking ways to simplify.  I have started removing the clutter from my home.  Next I hope to organize so that finding things doesn’t take half my day.  Later I hope to simplify everything, even my favorite hobby, quilting, by getting back to basics doing most if not all of the work by hand.  

Once I received a Relief Society handout that read BUSY.  It really was an acronym for “Being Under Satan’s Yoke.”  I think our lives are just way too BUSY and complicated.  I’d love to hear how other sisters have simplified their lives and what blessings they are reaping from their efforts.

Kathy Ramirez in Mexico City

Over-scheduling is becoming a big problem in modern life, and we as church members aren’t exempt.  Many people just have too much — too much to do, and too much stuff to do it with. 

There is a terrific new children’s book that was reviewed in Meridian just last week, Is there Really a Human Race? by Jamie Lee Curtis, which points out to children  that life is much more satisfying when we slow down and try to make the world a better place rather than speed up and try to accomplish everything.  A lot of parents would do well to read that book, and to internalize its simple message. 

I have known two families who left the Church because they couldn’t schedule Sunday meetings around their children’s soccer games.  We are friends with a family in our stake who won’t let the home teachers into their house because every single night of the month is scheduled with modern dance classes, aerobics sessions, basketball games, and band practice.  Everyone is off in a different direction.  They’re so busy having fun that home is only a place to sleep.

And lest you think I’m just pointing fingers at other people, I have to add that I haven’t written a thank you note in several years because my desk is so cluttered that there is literally not enough space for me to put a tiny note card on the surface so I could write.  Enough is enough!

If you have any suggestions about life simplification, please send them to Circle of Sisters — pronto!  Our address is circleofsisters@meridianmagazine.com. Put something in the subject line that will let me know your letter isn’t spam.  And when you write, be sure to include your full name, city and state or province. (If you’d rather be semi-anonymous, sign your name as “A Reader from Michigan” or “Sandy from Timbuktu.” The important thing is that we hear from you.)

Until next time — Kathy

Lao-tzu (604 BC-531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu