Need Less

I saw this car the other day. It made me happy. Not only because of the sage reminder to "need less," but because this person is clearly no hypocrite (the picture doesn't totally convey it, but this car is incredibly well-worn--or should I say well-loved?)

Often I find myself caring too much about the wrong things--a hazard of living in an affluent society. It's too easy to get caught in the spiraling vortex of wanting things. One of my favorite quotes from She Got Up Off the Couch (by Haven Kimmel) says:  

“I wanted something so excellent and strange that when I showed it to my friends their bellies would start to ache with covetousness, the way mine ached a whole bunch of the time, almost every time I took a look at the world and saw how little of it belonged to me.”

I'm familiar with that sort of wanting--maybe it's best described as longing. But what does it do for us, besides make us sad? I like this quote by Henry David Thoreau:

And this one by Melody Beattie:

"[Gratitude] turns what we have into enough."

I wish I could say I've found a solution to wanting, but so far I'm still at the trying stage. Trying to need less. Trying to shed myself of some materialism and seek happiness from it's true sources--from God, from relationships, from knowledge, from kindness. 

Need less.