Simplify, Simplify, Simplify!

Thoreau said, "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail."

I read his words and I nod. I have been feeling an intense urge to (try to) simplify things in my own life, to slow down, to step back. And that's just what I'm going to do. For the next stretch of time, I will focus on my family and my friends, on the novel I'm writing, on the good books I'm reading, on the vast questions that buzz beautifully in my head, my heart, my home.

The cool thing? The thing that makes me smile as I type these words? That I know you, you, will understand and respect me more for doing this, for pressing pause, for finding focus, for simplifying.

And maybe you, you, will do the same in your own way, in your own time? Maybe you too will make a little more space for deep breaths and good stories and real people and Life beyond buttons and screens?

I will be back soon - whatever that means. And I will still be in the ether - on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter - just less so. Baby steps, right?

I'm excited about this. I take that as a very good sign.

Do you ever have the urge to slow down, to step back, to simplify? Are you immersed in social media, in the blogging world? Do you think these things distract you from other things, things that matter?