Living lightly is not only a matter of reducing material possessions but also not crowding my time with trivia. By virtue of my personality, I enjoy the challenge of saving time. Sometimes this means doing things faster or multitasking. Of course there are pros and cons to speed and efficiency. It takes time to play, pray, […]
Living Lightly
Susan Vogt on living more simply but abundantlyBrowsing Posts tagged Intangibles
Although I like to think that most often my opinions are right, I admit that my husband, Jim, is often more accurate about facts than I am. I might say, “Hey, there were about 50 people at the party.” Jim might say, “No, there were 46. I counted.” I chalk this up to different personality […]
Some people need more self-discipline and organization in their lives. Some people need less. To those who like to be in control (like me) the challenge is to let go of micromanaging my life, other’s lives, and the world. It is only relatively recently that I’ve recognized my love of control as a potential problem. […]
After I broke my arm a couple months ago, I learned to do many things with my non-dominant (left) hand like eating, brushing my teeth, and wearing stretchier clothes that were easier to put on. I’m slowly returning to normal. But what is normal and the “right” way to do things? This got me thinking […]
In my blog about Letting Go of Anger, I suggested that part of letting go of anger against others includes letting go of anger at myself. Upon reflection, it wasn’t hard to make a list of things I’ve messed up, regretted, or wished I could do over. Some are trivial, some are embarrassing, some are […]
Can there be such a thing as “Holy Anger”? Jesus’ message and actions were primarily grounded in love and mercy, BUT, scripture also tells us that Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple. (John 2:14-16) This is the conundrum I sometimes find myself in. How should I deal with my anger? As a […]
I’ve spent almost 4 weeks now listening to people with whom I disagree. That might sound like a depressing Lent, but my intention was to better understand people who have a different political stance than mine. This meant I had to find and talk with Trump voters. Since I, like many people, primarily associate with […]
Lately, I’ve been having some troubling feelings connected with my latest book, Blessed By Less: Clearing Your Life of Clutter by Living Lightly. It was published almost 3 years ago and won a number of awards. I’m understandably proud of it, but I find myself feeling dispirited by not getting enough credit for it. For […]
My last blog post dealt with when is a bargain not a bargain. (See Deal or No Deal) Now I’d like to expand on that by evaluating a few other items that involve weighing time vs. money. How much is my time worth? The bench mark I’m starting to establish for myself is that a discount […]
In my never ending quest to save both time and money, I’ve noticed that these two values are often at odds with each other. Saving time can cost money (eating out, hiring someone to clean the house, scouring stores or the internet for bargains) and saving money can cost time (see my 3 recent experiences […]
Within the category of Too Much Information there are the subcategories of good news, bad news, and irrelevant news. GOOD NEWS: Although you would think that there could never be too much good news, even good news can create mental clutter. For example, how many birthdays, anniversaries, and friends’ awards do you need to acknowledge? […]
The other day I had a doctor’s appointment. My custom is to take the morning paper with me to appointments since there is always some waiting time and this is a good way to spend it. The doctor saw me and said, “I didn’t know anyone read paper papers anymore.” So, how much news do […]
As I reflect on my Lenten commitment to buy nothing (other than food, shelter, and gas) in order to grow in solidarity with the poor, it has raised my consciousness of what it means to be poor. Yesterday I wrote about my experiences at the Home & Garden Show and converting a film movie to […]
Strange things have happened to me during the past 4 days – 2 merchants gave me free service. There was a Home & Garden show at the Cincinnati Convention Center. Jim thought we should go to research replacement windows for our 100 year old house. I agreed and assumed this would be free since the […]
A few days ago our daughter emailed us saying that she was in Liberia. With the Ebola crisis emanating from that region of Africa, our parental worry antenna shot up. She assured us that she was being extremely careful and was super sanitized but Ebola stories have been endemic on the news. Of course that’s why […]
I recently returned from a trip to visit our daughter in Nairobi, Kenya. International travel like this always prompts reflections on life and how we humans are alike and different, I’d like to share 2 things I learned – one humorous and one humbling. Humor: Our daughter, Jim, and I went on a walking safari […]
It was a bad day! It started with an unnecessarily long conference call which meant I had to scurry to make my eye doctor appointment. This meant I didn’t have time to recheck my directions, made some wrong turns, and was 16 minutes late. The office informed me that they didn’t honor appointments later than […]
PART 2 (2 years after my Oh, My Aching Back post): Perhaps the hardest thing for me to let go of recently has been the expectation that I would have basic good health for at least another decade. My mother is 90 and I’ve watched her health and memory decline but I figured that was […]
12 Pet Peeves and What I’m Doing About Them Before I get back into continuing Round 2 of pruning more household items, I’m ready to let go of some intangible stuff – Pet Peeves. Over a year ago I blogged about my pet peeves including: 1. Radio interviewees who end with “Thank you” instead of […]
This is the last week of Lent and I’m moving to our dining room which has exactly 7 drawers. (I won’t finish all the drawers in our house before Easter, but this will have to do for now because we’re going out of town for Easter. It was a fun room to do because I […]
