Moving stuff

I have a lot of stuff. I just do. I don't even know where it all came from. I have an entire luggage set, filled with stuff, about 8 boxes, filled with more stuff, and a few random bags, also filled with stuff. For the record, let me define stuff:

Stuff:

Clothes, books, writing utensils, CDs, DVDs, bed linens, photographs, previous assignments, coat hangers, 1 mug, 1 matching bowl, old calendars, jewelry, a collection of big hats, portable iPod speakers (with AM/FM radio, woot!), make-up, wrapping paper, shoes, boxes full of old notes and ideas, and an entire line of Clinique skin care products.

ACK!

What ever happened to living simply? When I first came to New Zealand, I didn't have nearly this much STUFF! Where on earth did it all come from? The sheer volume of it all has recently been brought to light due to the fact that I am moving into an apartment today. I didn't even realize how much I had myself, until I looked into the van we're using and saw how little room I had left my boyfriend for all his clothes/books/writing utensils....

It frustrates me that I accumulate so many unnecessary items, and it saddens because, after a recent trip to India, my eyes have now been officially opened to the poverty and the desperation that so many across the world are living in. Not that an Indian child would like a 2008 calendar, but still. I'm just saying, there are people who will never see the amount of money it would take to buy all this stuff in an entire lifetime. And I'm over here in my comfortable new penthouse apartment, forgetting that I even own it all. I feel guilty, and I feel like this materialistic obsession endorsed by myself and so many others of my generation is slowly deadening us to the pain and suffering of our fellow man. Wow, I know that's a pretty big statement, but I wholeheartedly believe that by living simply, we would more easily be able to relate to, and therefore help, those around us with less.

I'll end with a quote from one of my favorite saints, St Teresa of Avila,

"It is love alone that gives worth to all things."