The Power to Say Yes

If you are moving toward inner simplicity, you’re probably already cutting back on many of the diversions that may previously have occupied a lot of your time, such as television, movies, videos, noisy bars, and crowded restaurants.

You may find that the entertainment aspects of the inner realms are not only much more satisfying, but they leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, whereas many of the more popular gratifications deplete your energy and often bring you down.

This is not to say that any of these amusements are unacceptable in themselves, or that you want to eliminate them entirely. But if you think about it, you can figure out which activities you might have partaken of in the past, that now no longer contribute to your well-being or your peace of mind.

And, if you think about it some more, you can come up with activities—sometimes seemingly insignificant ones—that can fill your soul. A while back I was washing some grapes for lunch. I looked at that bunch of big, red, luscious grapes and saw how exquisitely beautiful they were. It was almost as though I’d never seen a grape before. I held them up and turned them this way and that and marveled at the gradations of color and how they appeared to change shape as the light hit them.