Keep it Simple

July 5th, 2012 | Add a Comment

“It is always the simple that produces the marvelous” –Amelia Barr

I hereby testify: this woman speaks the truth!! I am one who tends to overcomplicate EVERYTHING. I am ever so persistently sifting through the garbage of life with my monocle, afraid of missing that crown jewel. Instead of stepping back, doing the things I am supposed to, and allowing life to unfold on its own, I choose to look for signs in all the wrong places.

I heard a speaker at a meeting say something very profound, “Imagine this wall is a painting – my life. (Points to wall) Well, I choose to keep my eyes centimeters (plants face against wall) from a given part of this wall and focus on the splotch of red that isn’t supposed to be there. There is no right and wrong, everything just is. I now choose to look at the entire picture and appreciate it as it is.” The way I perceive this is: if I choose to keep things simple, and do only what I am supposed to, as opposed to questioning and fretting over anything else, everything will fall into place. Trial and tribulation have shown, the more I try and control the outcome of a situation, the further from that desired outcome I always end.

There is evidence of beauty and the immaculate unfolding before us all of the time. Keeping it simple allows me to bear witness to this phenomenon. I am afraid of missing what there is to gain from talking to another. It is when I am on the quest to figure it out that I end up blowing whatever said opportunity arises. If I have all my ducks in a row, in a truly simplistic manner, good things come to me. Building mountains out of mole-hills never amounts to anything. I have been presented the most astonishing of opportunities because I do what I am supposed to do, daily. (Sorry, metaphor city, here.) Picture it like this: Life is a pyramid, a hierarchy, if you will. At the bottom is everything basic- self care. If I don’t have a solid, concrete foundation, I can’t build off it, at all. Anything I build on top of a shifty foundation with inevitably fall, always. There is no way around that, whatsoever. Keeping it simplehelps, well, keep it simple. Simple enough? That’s enough out of this proverbial prophet for now. Hope I didn’t blow your minds too much. It’s complicating to write about such a simple topic.

By Andrew T.