Useful and Necessary

This holiday season I reread all of Little House in the Big Woods.  I usually only read the chapters about Christmas and the sugar snow, but I started it this year and wanted to read it all.  So, I did.  And now I long for times I never knew.  Not that I necessarily want to live in 1871 in the woods of Wisconsin, but I love the idea of using everything available without waste and having no unnecessary items.  I love the idea of appreciating everything, which so few of us do these days. 

For Christmas, Laura got a pair of mittens, a piece of candy, and a rag doll.  The rag doll was special; she was the only child who got more than mittens and candy.  Ma got a baker's rack carved by Pa.  Ma herself sewed a felt needle-holder for Laura's aunt, and Laura's aunt gave Ma a sweet-smelling apple full of cloves.  Not much, but so appreciated.  I think it really hit a cord with me this year because aside from a needlepoint ornament, I didn't make any gifts this year.  My clay stayed in the closet, my paints and canvases remained in their boxes.  I like making things.  I did get things to make, though, like a cross-stitched sweet-bag kit for potpourri, and a book on doll-making.

And now I'm looking around my room and I see so many unnecessary things.  Too many books (though those can never actually be unnecessary in my opinion), too many clothes that I've been holding onto for sentimental reasons or simply because they look "ok" and haven't totally fallen apart yet, too many brochures from places I've visited, hotel keys, and all the bric-a-brac of life that piles up until you can't see the shelves or the floor anymore.  Things that I don't need.  Things that are neither pretty nor useful anymore.  I desperately need to organize and clean.  Same thing with food-- I need to use it.  I need to use my olive oils and jars of honey that came as gifts.  They are good, and need eating.  I shouldn't put them on a shelf, "saving" them for a "special" enough time.  That turns into crystallized honey.  Same with soaps and candles.  They are meant to be used.  I shouldn't save a soap or candle.  Then they pile up.  They were made for me to use.  I can't enjoy them if I don't use them.

So, as far as I have a New Year's Resolution, it's to live more simply, more usefully, and more beautifully.