How to sell all your stuff.

Once in a while I come across a line, a sentence or something that encourages me to think about certain things. One of these is the website: http://www.neverendingvoyage.com/how-to-sell-all-of-your-stuff-part-1/

You've probably heard the line 'the things you own end up owning you' before. Well,
cliché as the line may be, it's still very much true.

The quote I'm talking about is:
'Lately I’ve been contemplating how attached people become to the things they own. We live in a very consumer driven culture where we are constantly told that our possessions define us as people. We buy iPhones and leather jackets and even cereal because it embodies the lifestyle we want to lead. As a result the physical things we own start to become not just our goals but our responsabilities. There are costs to owning things, both big and small, which we never even stop to consider. Without going TOO obnoxiously preachy on everyone I have to ask if getting so caught up in the possesing of stuff distracts us from what’s really important in life?'
by -Steph- (that's all I know)

So this got me thinking about my own situation. I'm not going to go on a preachy rant here about how we 'should all better ourselves and start living like hermits'. A couple of years ago, I've come to the realization that I own A LOT of stuff. And like the author of the quote, I've decided to let most of it go. These are things that I don't miss or even think about when I'm away. So, in the spirit of fully - blossomed spring, I'm doing a cleanup after my exams in June.
The hardest things that I will try and let go are books. I've recently picked up the habit of passing on books that I've read, in hopes that others might enjoy them as much as I did. I encourage them to do the same, and pass the books on when they finish them. Somehow I find this to be a lot harder than I imagined. I somehow always think that I will 'need' those books in the future. A personal goal to work on.
Another thing are CD's. Dozens upon dozens of punk-rock cd's that I've accumulated over the course of my pre-teen and teenage years, and that are (most of them anyway) stored on a hard-drive by now. I have the feeling these will be particularly hard to let go as well. Like giving away a part of my childhood. Silly? But necessary. I will probably never be able to kill the materialist within, I will always 'need' certain things which I really don't. But I will enjoy the conscious struggle, that's for sure.

Which brings me to this: something I wrote on a scrap piece of paper somewhere, a while ago, can't remember when:

I chose experiences, I chose adventure. I chose love.

Everybody seems to be in a continuous chase.
People chase that which they desire. Most of us let our lives, thoughts and actions be ruled by desire.
To want is innate to man's being. We chase beauty, we chase ideals.
We focus so much on reaching that goal that we don't enjoy running across the field. We feel like it's our duty to teach, while we forget what it's like to be a student.
We don't think about the legs enabling us to get there. We don't think about our lungs filling themselves with air to keep us going.
Our eyes and mind are always fixed on the finish line.

I, most of all, don't ever think about these things. I get so caught up in reaching my desires, it being experiences, it being love, it being thoughts, it being pleasure, it being altruism and especially egoïsm, it being skills, that I lose sight of the way.

I often see daily life as an obstacle. My personal purgatory where I wait until the time comes for me to move on. I wake up in the morning counting down how many more of these mornings to go until I can finally be in control of my own path again.

But.. Come on. Really? Is this the idea that I'm living for? Is this what I've become? Now I'll write 'no more'. But I know, in a day or two, my mind will have set itself back to that old state.

That's why it's important that I live purposely. That I draw conscious, not automated breaths.



I can feel the hypocrisy, sitting here writing about materialism on my fancy laptop, inside a nice house, plenty of food in the fridge. Judge me those who think you can. I mostly write this for myself, and I'm working on my path.