But wait... there's less!

If there's so much enjoyment from having fewer possessions why do we have so many? Part of the answer is in marketing and advertising. Some ads are tricky and manipulative. Others are just straight out nonsense, repeated so often we begin to believe it. This ad appeared in my suburb in the lead up to Christmas. If it is to be believed then it must be a terrible Christmas for everyone around the world who doesn't have access to my local shopping centre - the "only place for gifts". Not only are there plenty of other shops, but there are plenty of non-shop options. Sites like So Kind have plenty of other ideas for gifts including experiences, the gift of time (like babysitting) or baking a loved one a cake or batch of cookies. For gifts you could even go to sites like Ebay or Gumtree where people are often selling brand new items that they received as gifts, but didn't want or aren't able to use. Despite what advertising tells us there are plenty of...

So you know that we've been giving away quite a number of possessions we don't really need. Recently I was busy and couldn't arrange a mutually convenient time for someone to pick up the item they wanted. So I left it outside in a small box. When I arrived home it had been replaced with a large box of food. This is that food. Potatoes, turkish bread, pumpkin, lettuce, cucumber, etc. It's great living in a world of generosity. The person receiving my item was very appreciative of my generosity and (on her own initiative) returned it with some generosity of her own. It's such a great change from the what's-in-it-for-me world that seems to dominate our world. When we're generous, we're all better off - and a lot happier.