barefoot and disheveled

We spent the last two days helping a good friend de-clutter, reorganize and reclaim her apartment. It was good for our spirits to spend a couple of days focusing on someone else and doing things that in no real way benefited us except to give us the satisfaction of helping someone we love.
In the midst of the chaos that was her apartment (and has been her life as of late) I realized my passion for living simply. I don't just mean in our material goods, either. There is a simplicity that we have always sought with the things we own and the place we live, but as we pursue that kind of clarity, it seems to affect the rest of our life as well. This urge to purge the unnecessary has found it's way not only into our shopping, but into our diets, into our friendships, our living arrangement, our faith, our jobs and our parenting. 'Balance requires sacrifice,' my husband said on our way home. It made me think. What are the things that we must sacrifice to really and truly live clean, simple, honest, sustainable, and balanced lives? How will we teach it to our son? What kind of childhood will he look back on? I can only hope, (and try try try) to make it one of just that... simplicity. So that he can understand the kind of balance that matters, as well as any of us can.