Needing Simplicity

This morning when I got up, it felt good, satisfyingly good to sit in my rocker and look at the simplicity of my newly polyurethane floors. No extra "stuff" around, just plain and simple.
I thought about a couple things while I sat there mindlessly rocking away and sipping my iced Chai.
Shopping yesterday was mind boggling to me. I don't ever shop all day, never ! And watching so many people carry bags and bags of things to their cars amazed me. What on earth was everyone buying, I was shopping for a wedding of nearly 200 people. So it felt justifiable for me to be filling up the back of the station wagon (91 Taurus, just about 200,000 miles on it)
No matter how hard I try, the idea of how much stuff everyone has, haunts me. I just don't understand the need to have so much. Maybe part of me has this level of idealism that just can't go away. If we would just share what extra we have with those in need or not spend and help others more, or if we would just not have so much so life would be simpler and people would not have to work for "stuff" but for simple things like food and shelter. Certainly people need some entertainment, but not so much that they go into debt for it.
When I was moving things in the living room to do the floors, I surprised myself by having all these things that had to be moved. Cutsie things that delight the eye for the first week you own them then they sorta just grow on you and you hardly notice them.
Today, there is going to be a lot listed on our freecycle list. Cutsie things, with dust on them.
Mentally I keep a running list of people that I admire. People that have impacted the world with their lives.
Gandhi, The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Thoreau, John Muir, Jesus, George Mueller and I know there are a few more that I am just not remembering at this time. But not a one of them lived with a desire for "things". "The acquirers" of the world never seem to be the folk that change the world for the better in a selfless, without an agenda (to make themselves look better) sort of way.
So no matter how hard I try, I just cannot justify paying for stuff that I don't need but just want to look at or have someone else look at and say, "oh my, isn't that lovely, where did you get that, or oh what a treasure" !
And if you use it, you have to decide HOW MANY do you need of the same thing.
Simple living is still my goal.
On that note, I will try to get some pictures of the wedding things I bought yesterday and wonder if I should eat my words on simplicity : )