The Minimalists: UK Book Tour

 

Sometimes I think the stars are alligned, the fates are doing whatever they’re meant to be and things happen for a reason….

I have talked briefly about my recent flirtation with minimalism and the idea of having less. From reading about minimalism and starting to declutter myself I came across Project 333 and started to mimimise my wardrobe.

Then yesterday I read a post from Jen at the brilliant blog: mymakedoandmendyear. She had just been to see The Minimalists on their UK book tour. The Minimalists are two American men who, for the past few years, have followed the course of minimalisim and blogged and written about it. If you start to ‘google’ minimalism their names will certainly appear.

I was very excited to read Jen’s post about seeing them in the flesh. Imagine my delight when I casually clicked onto their book tour link and discovered they were talking (for free) in Bristol last night! (about a 4o min journey from where I live). So, after arranging childcare, I whizzed across to Bristol to see the Minimalists in person!

While they were ostensibly in the UK to promote their latest book, ‘Everything that Remains’, it was clear that Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus wanted to talk about much more than that.  There was absolutely no pressure to buy the book – but you could still queue for a hug (I had to run for my train which meant there was no time to pick up a copy or get a hug which I may have felt rather British and awkward about!).

Joshua and Ryan talked about their individual journeys away from earning huge bucks, owning lots of things and being unhappy to life changing events that led to getting rid of many possessions and embracing a simpler life and work balance. They were funny, self effacing and friendly and genuinely passionate about what they had discovered about living a minimalist life.

As I have spent the past year learning more about minimalism a lot of what they said (‘possessions don’t own you; keep only what is useful and adds something to your life’) was already familiar to me. I have to confess that, being a mother of three small children in a small cottage in the English countryside made me think I didn’t have much in common with two single American men in their thirties. But yet what they said made so much sense and is so universal that I came away feeling even more inspired to get rid of more possessions, embrace the simple things and focus on time spent with my family.

So you see it was all meant to be….