A language known by few

Simplicity is a way of thinking and executing life. It is deceiving to the eye; through the means we comprehend the word to be understood as something that is similar to simple.  Yet, if actually understood, stands to be in today’s culture of America something that is of great lack due to its complex difficulty.

This is in no way, a new topic.  Searching the word in google will slam you in a world of blogs, articles and self-help tools to teach you all about it. But yet it remains to be one of those things that it seems very few have figured out. The rest are left in search of it or in contentment without it. The fascinating thing is that simplicity I don’t think is one simple thing. It is a complex, encompassing multiple areas in our lives and for each person appears individually specific.

We live in a world that speaks every language except for simplicity. Between the explosion of advertisement, the push of media holding standards to who you are and who you should appear to be via social media and the constant message that we need more attacking our every sense there is little reminding of us the contentment of simplicity.

Like anything you’ll see extremes, pockets of people who live in a world of what appears to be simple, lowly and without the constant screaming for attention. Yet when studied longer it reveals itself as a fad, a way of living for the purpose of standing out and or attracting attention. So rare it is to find someone truly seeking simplicity in their own life without the draw for human affirmation which so profoundly instantly undoes what they sought in the first place.

On a personal level I have read, research and thought about simplicity a lot. I hope to find contentment with little material and physically, the freedom of mind from affirmation or attention and the ability to live a life that executes an agenda of external and internal worth above design, popularity, Instagram posts and appraisal. One that finds itself in the mundane things in life rather than the extraordinary and the good news is that there are plenty more of them to be found. A life that seeks to rather than keep up with the latest trends to keep up with the joy, excitement, love, sadness and pain of the reality of people’s off Instagram lives.

Yet there is that constant pull to speak the language that so many are speaking, to engage in the never ending hamster wheel of competition. The thing that destroys this way of living from what I have experienced is to rejoice.  To rejoice in others; in their success, in their beauty, in their achievements, in their creativity, in their excitement, in their experiences and in their life. So often our first response is to covet, to want for yourself; their beauty, their experience, their joy, their life. Yet when that energy is trained and cultivated into focusing and rejoicing in that person the competition and need to attain dissipates.  

I pray this is of encouragement to you in your journey.