Wanting to live a more simple and minimalistic life apparently was a desire in the 1950s as much as it is today.
And I have a hunch it went back further than that.
When you add technology to our lives, when you add household gadgets that are supposed to make your life simpler, when you add television - and that was probably the biggest tipping point of consumerism - it creates this desire to be, become, live, do and have more than was ever required to function.
Apparently, we had more than enough when life was simpler, and I'm sure you - just like me- think the women of the 1950s shouldn't have had the desire to simplify their lives. It was already simple, especially if you compare it to today in the 21st century.
Can you imagine what women or men from the 1950s would think of social media? Amazon? Getting whatever we want - not just need - at any hour of the day?
They'd be flabbergasted.
And it's no wonder we're all pining for a simpler and easier way to live. There has to be something better than desiring more stuff or live inauthentic lives.
I just read a book that has been on my TBR (to be read) list for years. It's called Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh was the wife of Charles Lindbergh who flew the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic. I'd read her "journals" decades ago but hadn't read her other works. My mother recommended the book (and realized it had been on my list) and I have to say this:
If you're looking for a book that covers simple living, for a more minimalistic and intentional life, it would be this one. It's short, about 130 pages, but it's a gem. It's beautifully written like a work of art.
It's so adaptable to today's world that I was shocked to read it had originally been published in 1955. You would never know it. Almost 70 years after it was written, it feels as fresh and relevant today as it did back then. I wish I'd read it sooner.
Lindbergh goes through her life's stages comparing them to seashells, and identifying with each shell: they each serve a purpose and they all direct her back to a simpler way of living.
She "shares her meditations on youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude, and contentment as she set them down during a brief vacation by the sea."
It's an astounding book. And it reinstates the concept that minimalism and a simpler way of living were meant for all of us, in every stage of our lives. That the "trappings of modernity" have caused us to feel unfulfilled.
This book redirects us to a route that escapes the trappings and beckons us once again to regain our very selves by getting to the root of who we are: We were meant to live a simple, sweet life. A life that acts like a gift - one given to our heart and soul to nourish and sustain us.
-Heather
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