Simple Pleasures

I picked up "Epicurean Simplicity", a book by Stephanie Mills, today. I believe that I discovered it while browsing for websites on living a soulful life. The author writes about the importance of putting experiences of pleasure back into our lives. She speaks about an article by a William Wallace that inspired her to look into the Epicurean Philosophy and I found a website that contains the entire book by that Scottish author and this interesting quote.

Food for thought...
September 14, 2006
"Be an experiential epicure... Find the small things that you know give you a little high- a good meal, working in the garden, time with friends--and sprinkle your life with them. In the long run, that will leave you happier than some grand achievement that gives you a big lift for a while."
- David Lykken

Soulful Simplicity!

Duane Elgin wrote a book in 1981 called Voluntary Simplicity. It became the basic vision for the Voluntary Simplicity Movement. I found a really interesting essay by Elgin, in which he differentiates the "Many, diverse expressions of simplicity of living [that] are flowering."

The one that got my attention was Soulful Simplicity. Elgin says "Soulful Simplicity means to approach life as a meditation and to cultivate our experience of intimate connection with all that exists. A spiritual presence infuses the world and, by living simply, we can more directly awaken to the living universe that surrounds and sustains us, moment by moment. Soulful simplicity is more concerned with consciously tasting life in its unadorned richness than with a particular standard or manner of material living. In cultivating a soulful connection with life, we tend to look beyond surface appearances and bring our interior aliveness into relationships of all kinds."

Each life will be some combination of the 10 expressions of simple living. Do you see any favorites?