It's new year's eve. I'm sitting in my favorite chair, relaxing for the first time in what seems like weeks. I'm sliding into 2011 with my dogs barking, my back aching, my mind swimming...and I'm giddy as a school girl.
This year has taught me that I am a powerful creator and when I want something, it's okay to believe I deserve it and when I believe I can have it, I can...and I do.
I just looked out the window, but instead of seeing my favorite porch and ginormous backyard, I'm gazing out onto the ever-changing backdrop of downtown Austin. I barely made it, by the skin of my teeth, I think they say...but I did. I accomplished my 2010 new year's resolution - to balance and simplify my life.
I hung a cute, albeit cheap - er, inexpensive - metal sign up in my walk-in closet last January. It had one word written on it - Simplify. I repeated that word everyday, multiple times a day all year long. I talked to my family about it. I promised my friends I'd do it. I'm sure people thought I was like the drunk girl that tells the same story over and over at the party. "Yeah, yeah, Jo. You said that already. We've heard this story before." Don't get me wrong, I've totally been that girl at the party before, so I'm not judging. (Well, maybe a little. It's horrifying to watch, huh?) I'm just trying to make a point. This was different. This was good (and sober). It felt great to dream about, to plan for and to talk about. It added a certain spice to my life and a hopeful point-of-view on the world that just made me an altogether happier person. So, to all of my friends and family that listened to me all year long go on and on and on about simplifying my life...I am not sorry I talked your ear(s) off. And, I thank you for listening, encouraging and inspiring me.
I enjoyed a wonderful year of traveling with some of my dearest friends and met charming people from all of the world along the way. I had no idea when I started the year, that I'd have a place to lay my head in Poland, Australia, England, Ireland or Canada if the need ever arose. I'm creating my very own global wolf pack and I plan to continue...
March of 2010 marks the first time in my life that I took a true two-week vacation and didn't look at email, check voicemail, or call-in to the office. Those were two of the best weeks of my life...truly. So much so that I took a second two-week vacation in October. Taking time to stop and smell the roses in other parts of the world made me want to hunker down, hone my writing skills and take off to explore the world as a globetrotting short story writer.
I vowed to live in downtown Austin by the first of the year, although at Thanksgiving there was still no sign that it would possibly happen. Speaking of sign, that's what turned it all around. A sign. A simple sign that read FOR RENT. I placed the sign in my yard the day before Thanksgiving. I'd given up on the Craigslists and Facebooks of the world and vowed to make this happen some other way. By Sunday, December 5, I'd met the family who would rent my home. They were perfect, just like I knew they would be.
The following day, I found my condo...my perfectly cozy, uniquely me, new digs in the heart of downtown Austin where I spend all of my days and most of my nights. I'm roughly six blocks from work (0.5 miles), nestled up to Town Lake and stumbling distance away from my favorite bar scene in town. Of course, cozy equates to small and small equates to minimal and minimal equates to simple and simple equates to my goal. I had less than one month to reduce 2,000 sq ft of stuff to 741 sq ft of things that were truly meaningful to me and my life.
The idea of dealing with strangers on Craigslist and selling things I'd collected over the past 34 years seemed grueling and meaningless. In order for me to do anything great, it needs to be fun, so I decided to give everything away. My couch, rugs, coffee table, end tables, night stands, refrigerator, bed, desk, chairs, hammock, grill, smoker, paintings, cookware, decor, linens, lots and lots and lots of clothes....all of it. I gave it away to friends, family and to underprivileged children. I underestimated how good it would feel - the act of truly giving selflessly...without the want or expectation of anything in return - and I'm still savoring it. It honestly was my favorite part of 2010 and something I'll never be able to do again or else I'll be living in a cardboard box under I35.
As I was packing up the things most important and most comforting to me, I came to that sign in my closet. Simplify. I held the sign in my hand, thanked it for it's steadfastness and placed it in the goodwill box. After all, keeping the sign would've gone against everything it stood for. The dreamer in me pictures someone browsing the thrift store and stumbling upon the simple, little sign sitting amongst a bunch of useless nicknacks. She picks it up (it'll most likely be a she), it speaks to her, and she takes it home and her thoughts become things...just like mine.
