Enough

The one who knows he has enough is rich. 
~ Lao Tzu
Also translated, The one who knows enough is enough will always have enough.

In the monastery we learned to ask ourselves, is this a need or a want? Not that there was necessarily anything wrong with a want, but we desired to make our choices consciously. One result was that we did not have to get agitated when we did not get something -- that is when we did not get everything -- we wanted.

Solo Dios basta, according to a note found in one of St. Teresa's books after her death. Which can be translated "Only God suffices" or "God alone suffices" or "God is enough alone."

I would have said that Tom and I live fairly frugally. Which we do. Cheap, I think, is the word others might use to describe us. And we have always had the custom of cleaning out closets at least once or twice a year and donating clothes and other items to St. Vincent de Paul or to Goodwill and such places. But even so, we have accumulated way more than enough. 

One blessing of this move will be getting closer to the enough that will always be enough.

I am reminded of something one of the friars told me once. Because of the vow of poverty, Carmelites (like many others, I am sure) found it very hard to get rid of things, even when they wore out. So they stored stuff away in the basement or the attic, just in case it might be useful or reparable in some distant future.

Terrence told me that he used to refer to each new superior as a basement man or an attic man. The new superior always arrived determined to clean out the clutter that had accumulated. Prior One would have everything in the basement moved to the attic. Prior Two would come along three years later and have everything in the attic stored in the basement. There was a lot of activity, but never any progress. No one could bring himself to actually throw anything away.

When I was subprior at Holy Hill in the late 1980s, I decided to clean out one of the storage rooms that was particularly full of junk. Among the things I found was a stack of unused penny postcards. The last time you could send a postcard for a penny through the United States mail was 1951. I am sure that the friars kept them on hand, because you could always add additional postage by affixing a stamp. But no one ever did. 

And don't even ask me how many broken and useless alarm clocks I threw out! Or dried up ballpoint pens. Or ...