Why Simplify?
There is a slogan in Alcoholics Anonymous that reads “K.I.S.S. — Keep it simple, Sweetheart”. Before I got sober, things were extremely chaotic. Consequently, it was easy to come up with excuses for my self-destructive behavior.

“If you had my life, you’d drink, too,” was a justification for all kinds of crap that I did. Drinking. Manipulating. Losing my temper. Having sex with people I didn’t like or even know. I was miserable and much of it was self-inflicted.

Simplifying the way I live frees me from a lot of stress, saves me time and opens up opportunities that were previously blocked by a chaotic life.

Keeping Simplicity Simple
ZenHabits.net has a short list and a long list for simplifying your life. The short list involves only two things. One, identify what’s important to you. And two, eliminate everything else. How simple is that? Yeah, simple, but not necessarily easy. If that’s too simple, they also have a long list of 72 ways to simplify your life.

When my desk looks like a Best Buy,
it’s time to simplify.

Too Much Information
Do you find yourself skipping posts on blogs you’ve subscribed to without reading them? Or deleting podcast episodes without listening to them? Me, too. When that happens, I consider deleting feeds that I don’t read or listen to. Just because I unsubscribe doesn’t mean a blog or podcast is bad. It just means I have more pressing things to do.

Too Much Tech
I love devices. I like my desktop and my laptop and my iPod and my cellphone (marginally) and my white noise machine and my DVR and my Blue-Ray player and… Part of it is due to the fact that both my wife and myself are IT people. We like tech. But when my desk looks like a Best Buy, it’s time to simplify.

Too Much Stuff
I have a habit of procrastinating. I don’t always put things away when I’m done with them. This leads to clutter, which makes it more difficult to concentrate. Clutter also causes stress. In short, clutter costs me more time than I thought I saved because eventually I have to put my stuff away (or risk an avalanche).

Take time to determine what’s important
to you and eliminate the rest.

Meditation
What’s so hi-tech about meditation? Absolutely nothing. And that’s the point. When I meditate, I let go of my attachment to all the chaos in my life, even if it’s for five or ten or (dare I hope?) thirty minutes. It’s a mental health day compressed into a short span of time. But I find I’m less stressed and better able to deal with the hi-tech challenges of being a web and graphic designer.

Simply Put…
Life in the Twenty-First Century can be hectic. Around every corner is something demanding our attention. It’s enough to consider moving to Pennsylvania to join the Amish. Or at the least become a Quaker (and I have some good friends who have). But just because the technology has changed doesn’t mean you have to pull your hair out or feel guilty for not listening to every fabulous podcast out there (but one of my Quaker friends has an awesome one).

Take time to determine what’s important to you and eliminate the rest. If you have kids, be proactive and help them simplify their lives. Do they really need to go to karate AND soccer AND dance class AND piano lessons? Set an example and find one or two regular activities and limit their schedule (and yours) to that.

Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. (Maybe I should have stuck with just one simplify.)

You are welcome to download the story onto you computer or MP3 player. You’re also welcome to forward it to your friends. Just don’t change it or sell it.

A little background on the story–This is my first short story in twenty-five years. It was originally written for a contest which gave me the title. My first thought was what if a zealous lesbian parent named her child Sappho. What would life be like for that child? This story is my answer to that question.

I hope you enjoy it!

Sappho is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at dharmashanti @ gmail. com.