I am a bit of a pack rat. I gather stuff and tuck it away with the thought, “You may need that some day” Well, this time of year, some day seems very far away as the snow is pilled up outside and I am stuck inside with all of this stuff closing in on me. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for all the stuff I have, it just seems to me that maybe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe had it right when he said, “Less is more.”

I often think of my pioneer ancestors who fit all they owned in the world in a small wagon or even a hand cart and trekked over a thousand miles on foot to a new home. They had to pare their wants and needs down to the most essential possessions. As the journey grew long and arduous, they learned that possessions could become a heavy burden. Those things that were most precious and useful they kept, the rest they discarded along the trail in order to lighten their load.

Lightening the load seems like wisdom we could all benefit from in our lives. Though I am not packing my belongings across the nation, I do, at times, feel the heaviness of the load. It has to be liberating to let go. The less material things we have to worry and fret over, the more we can concentrate on the things that really matter. (Not to mention how much easier it would be to keep a house neat and tidy.) Perhaps it is time to sort out what is most precious and useful in my life and let go of the rest. By clearing out the clutter, it just may be that I will make room for something better to come into my life.