Our Own Universe of Simplicity

In a new notebook I am using, there is a section that has grey toned mixed media paper. This piece was created using four different pens – semi ink, grey ink, a red gel pen and a Slicci very fine ball point pen. I wrote with grey ink on a scrap of white watercolor paper, then added the dark black asemic ‘lettering’, added three red dots, and wrote the quote with a very fine ball point pen. I wrote it very small on purpose. Here is the quote:

Out of clutter find simplicity.

– Albert Einstein 1955

I actually created the grey, black and red portion many months ago. I left it in the notebook to dry hoping that the perfect quote would find it’s way, and it did! I think Einstein was right. We have to work to find simplicity out of all the clutter in our lives. Sometimes that simplicity is quietly waiting for us to look deep enough to find it…hence the very small lettering of the quote.

As I looked back on this piece, I thought about where I was in the late 1980s when I took my first calligraphy class, and I compared it to where I am now. Lots of adventures, lots of travel, lots of art supplies, lots of learning, moving, rearranging, organizing my creative spaces, and LOTS of clutter…or what other people call clutter! Where is the simplicity? I pondered that question and had to ask myself some hard questions. I would say I have simplicity, even as I have lots of things going and a lot of stuff. The ‘stuff’ has purpose and brings joy to our lives. Do I probably need to clean out a few more drawers and purge, sure. Do I need to use what I have instead of buying new, absolutely! Do I feel overwhelmed and covered up by stuff…not really.

To make Einstein’s quote work for my world, I realized I had to define for my life the definition of simplicity. Does it mean only owning one chair, or nothing on surfaces in my house? Does it mean a house that is always perfectly clean and organized? Or might it mean something different for the way I choose to live?

We live in a world where at a moment’s notice we can have any information we want, any option, any opinion, buy anything and have it delivered. There is always a new version, something to change or upgrade, somewhere to see and something more important or sexy, or challenging to do. To live a life of fulfillment we must choose for ourselves what simplicity and tranquility mean. Maybe it means embracing change, maybe it means being content with what we already have. Maybe it means letting go of ideas from ten or fifteen years ago and freeing our mind and soul rather than our spaces? Maybe, just maybe, simplicity means being able to sit still and be content with who we are right now while looking forward to who we can become.

So, in the midst of what might feel like a cluttered life, sit for a while and think about what simplicity means in your world. Einstein helped us discover infinite universes, maybe this quote from him is encouraging us to find our own universe of simplicity.