Quotable Sunday is hosted by Toni @A Daily Dose of Toni.  Head over to check her out, and why you are at it, why don’t you share some words of wisdom for the day!  It’s easy!  One of my favorite posts each and every week!

Did you pick a “word of the year”?  Seems like “everyone” is doing it.  I’ve run across it on several blogs, but my favorites are my friends Caroline and Yaya.  Last year my word was Change, and life sure did.  Those changes have prompted me that for 2010 my word is…..

or to use a phrase – “Keep it Simple”! 

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. ~Albert Einstein

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. ~Confucius

Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough. ~Author Unknown I think this one if my favorite. We can’t make it through life with no baggage, it is inevitable with our life experiences that there will be some, our baggage is what helps build our character, but excess baggage is what holds us back. We carry too much with us, and there is no room for picking up new “souvenirs” along the way.

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. ~Elise Boulding   Frugal until recently in my mind was a negative word, but now I understand it as being something positive in our life. It’s taken me 51 years to really understand that it is not MY STUFF that defines me.

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life. ~John Burroughs

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris Think about this one!

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~Leonardo DaVinci

If you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. ~Annie Dillard, “Seeing,” Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 1974 This quote is not so much beautiful, but think about it, how many times do you walk right over a penny, because, it’s just a penny, and not worthy your time or effort to bend down to pick it up?  I know I had a heads down penny on our front step for weeks, but if a penny is heads up, we pick it up!  Heads down was just asking for trouble!

Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. ~Lao Tzu

We don’t need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it. ~Donald Horban

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. ~Edwin Way Teale  Another one to really think about, the less “stuff” we have, the less time it takes to keep it in order!  I think about how over indulged Tara has been, and when we lived in FL, it took me so much time trying to keep her stuff in order.  Since moving we have less “on site storage” for our stuff, and we no longer deal with clutter issues.  I am at the point where after 6 mos, I feel I can now go to storage and re-visit those things still packed, and rid myself of more “stuff”.  The clutter was exhausting. It is that way with our internal clutter too!

A cup of coffee shared with a friend is happiness!