The desire for more…For my last birthday, I became the proud owner of two tiny bantam Wellsummer hens. Our brood now totals four - two large fowl (a Buff Sussex and a Black Rock) as well as the new girls, named Summer and Coco. For Christmas, I became the proud recipient of my very own Muck Boots, alongside a ‘Jan Van Leeuwen’ Peony plant and, care of my sister, a robotic hoover. Three gifts for Christmas, two for my birthday. Some may call this extravagant; some may call this downright mean. As I watch the chooks from where I write, nestled behind the raised veg bed and the wide border that is nothing more than a splat of mud, a feeling I have tried to deny raises its ugly head. Softly it calls out - more. More space. More land. More hens. More time. More, more, more. At this point in my minimalist living journey, I thought I had become immune to the want of ‘more’. But still, I find a desire there: a desire for two compost bins, instead of one. A desire for a big run I can stand up in for the chickens - with more chickens (and some quail) and land with an apple tree big enough for the children to climb. Can I dream of something more and still call myself a minimalist? When American minimalist Joshua Becker once said, ‘to live is to consume’, it caused me to pause. Oh. Whilst I am alive, I will always be consuming. Over the years, our home has taken on a different shape thanks to our ambition for a low waste lifestyle. We may throw away less now than ever before, but our kitchen is still full and I struggle to get things in the cupboard, even when we only have what we need and what we use. But learning about minimalism and living a sustainable lifestyle whilst being a mother has given me skills I wouldn’t have honed any other way. My experiences have led me to objectively assess the choices I make and help me be sure they are made with intention, authenticity and consideration. When the desire for more rears up, I have learnt to listen and, even though it’s challenging, to face them square-on and search for what is driving this desire to consume (even if I don’t like what I hear in return). I’ve learnt that almost 99% of the time it’s not the thing itself I desire, but the feeling I hope to achieve from consuming this new addition. (Perhaps we are all just using the act of consuming in order to push our deep, (maybe) unconscious feelings aside about ourselves and our lives? ) So I give myself time. I practice patience. And I have learnt to make peace with wanting more, it doesn’t make me any less of a minimalist provided I can seek fulfillment in the dream itself, rather than whether or not it comes true.
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