I am yours, just a dream (Fleetwood Mac)

As you know, I'm a big fan of Occam's razor. 

William of Ockham (c.1287–1347) was an English Franciscan friar, philosopher and theologian. His day of commemoration is, coincidentally, 10 April (also two whanau members, Denene and Suzanne's birthdays).

The widespread lay person's maxim that "the simplest explanation is usually the correct one" appears to have been derived from Occam's Razor. Wozza's take on this is: the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

Life is simple when you allow the most important things to dictate. 

My 2004 calendar has St. Francis of Assisi's quote: Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you're doing the impossible. 

[I've posted on this before - http://wozzasplace.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/start-by-doing-whats-necessary-then.html]

This quote makes sense to me now. The key to it is in that first bit - 'start by doing what's necessary'. In a moment of great clarity I know exactly what that is. Once you've figured that bit out, everything else falls into place.

I love it when an epiphany sits me on my ass.

That calendar includes another quote I love by Vernon Howard - You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. 

[I've also posted on it before - http://wozzasplace.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/you-have-succeeded-in-life-when-all-you.html]

Recently, all of this came to mind when I began to think about my possessions.

If you had to pack up in a hurry and had only one suitcase (total weight about 25 kg) to include what you need: your clothes and the things that are most important to you, what would you include?

These are the kinds of things I think about from time to time.

Here are the first things I pack:

• A spoon that used to belong to the US navy, then my dad 
• A framed photo from my parents' wedding 
• My ipod and Klipsch ipod dock (I need immediate access hence the dock) 
• Arsenal and Beatle ties 
• That 2004 desktop calendar

That's it!

There are plenty of other things I'd want but those are the things I need to include.

Everything I am staring at right now - my books, records, CDs, DVDs...wanted but not needed.

Necessary and needed. A good mantra!

The spoon? It's the emotional investment I have in it. It connects me to important things.

Love and peace - Wozza

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need (Vernon Howard)

June's quote (from my prized 2004 calendar) comes from Vernon Howard - an American spiritual teacher, author and philosopher.

Howard (1918-1992), from Massachusetts, began his writing career in the 1940s. He began speaking on the principles of personal development in the late 1950s while living in southern California. In the 1960s, he began writing books that focused on spiritual and psychological matters. These writings emphasized the importance and practice of self-awareness. By the early 1970s, he taught spiritual development classes. 

I really like the title quote. It's similar to the one on the left that I found on Brainy quote. 

In 2004 I used the title quote as inspiration in our move to the UK.

I analysed what I really needed during that process and it wasn't much. Basically it was a will to change and embrace a new start in England with SWMBO and the chuldrun. 

In terms of material possessions - we sold a huge amount of stuff we didn't need and couldn't take with us (house, cars, beds etc). We decided that it was basically clutter that we could do without. 

We did store a load of stuff in a self-storage facility in Cambridge NZ (a lot of which we threw away when we returned to NZ). These were irreplaceable things like my record collection, photographs, and personal items - the stuff that we cherish.

And the things we needed to take with us? That managed to fit into one large suitcase for each of us.

When I look around Abbey Road Two (the ART room) the only things I can see from that period are those records, books and photographs. Everything else has been accumulated in the years since then and will go into storage or be shed when we move again.

Hmmm - come to think of it, maybe it's getting to the point when we need to exfoliate some dead skin again.

Love and peace - Wozza