Enough

If you stop to think about, there is a lot of balance in the word ‘enough’.

Enough ultimately means adequate, an even score card, a balance between supply and demand.

Sure sometimes people shout ‘enough’ when they are worried there is going to be ‘too much’ ; an overload of information, emotion, or something material.

But I think enough can be invented as an exquisite balance.

Lets start to think about the challenges of our world.

How about starting an Enough economy, globally.

We could move from the concept of sustainability to one of ‘sufficiency’.

I’m borrowing ideas here heavily from a wonderful audio book I just read/listened to by Lynne Twist; Unleashing the Soul of Money.

Somehow she wonderfully blends ideas of abundance, sufficiency, purpose and freedom.

It had me stop in my tracks, and reflect gratefully (Great Full eeee) about how much I had enough all around me, in my natural world, in my material world.

Everything from eating enough, working enough, buying enough, enough time, it all comes into an outlook on life that can focus on enough, looking for it all around us, questioning when we think there is not enough.

So enough already, I hope you get the idea.

Flawed Holiness

You know, I think as the 21st century starts to mature, human beings have developed a powerful tendancy to be extremely hard on themselves.

I am guilty of it myself and see it all around. We are so often obsessed with trying to get things right, without ever pausing to dwell on the ultimate perfection of ourselves and the world around us.

It dawned on me that we perhaps have become a bit intellectual about the way we view perfection. Perfect to many means without error, perhaps straight lines, and accuracy; black and white, right and wrong. Somehow I believe that we have lost in translation the realisation that perfection is actually full of flaws.

A tree to me is a great, well in fact, perfect example. Just down the road from my office is a beautiful specimen of the native New Zealand pohutukawa tree. Its branches, leaves, and in summer, crimson blossom fan out in this perfect round shape against a bright blue sky. It is utterly beautiful. It is perfect. But close up it is full of scars, deadwood, broken branches; a chaotic jumble of limbs, twigs, leaves, flowers; complete disorder going in all directions. But on the skyline and from here, it is absolutely perfect.

I wonder if we often forget the link between the words, whole, and holy. I believe that the reason the word holy is important in religion and spiritual practice is that it is to remind us that we are all whole, perceived flaws and all. And that spiritual faiths are telling us that from a place of love, we are all whole. We are integral, complete, just the way we are, and that flaws that we have as imperfections are like the tree, a story of our lives, twists turns, great times, bad times, survival; weathered.

Recession Chic

A table is a very basic piece of furniture. In many homes they are at the centre of activity.

We just got a new table in our kitchen and it has elicited so many comments from visitors. Interesting really, I thought a table was a fairly ordinary thing.

But people love this table. So why? It fits the room perfectly, and is just the right size for people to sit around for coffee, to talk, write, carry out the myriad of tasks that you do at a table. It has ‘leaves’ so it can be extended to become a longer table. It has four chairs; strong and comfortable. This table and chairs have transformed our kitchen.

The thing is this table cost just $100, second hand from a used furniture shop. The table looks to be mahogany, maybe 30+ years old. It and its chairs are ‘cool’ in a retro sort of a way.

I think if I had gone to the new furniture shop, I might have found a ‘retro’ 70s style table for $1000 plus.

It’s got me wondering about material things and how we are going to deal with the toughened economic times.

Perhaps we don’t have to throw out desire for material possessions, but we simply reframe them, and shift what we value.

We will all be redefining what we see as important, of quality and what is luxurious.

http://trendwatching.com/briefing/#luxyoury

Are the best products always new?

Can a table with a visible ‘patina’ with a few nicks and sratches add far more value to our house than a flash new dining suite, or a large plasma TV? Is it a centre piece where we can make and share our own food, rather than dining out? Can we sit there and make stuff, rather than buy it, create a new community and a new take on our family?

There’s a new trend called Rough Luxury, that might just fit the bill, celebrating the worn, defining what yoou consider to be luxurious.http://www.roughluxe.com/philosophy.php

May be these toughened times and consumerism blow out might have us look a bit differently at what we truly need and truly value in the way of possessions. And you know, I think it might just lead to greater happiness