As I practice being grateful, gratitude becomes me. It enhances my day, my life. I become more grateful. It looks good on me. You might say it’s even becoming. ~ Trudie
Part two of my interview with Trudie Young of Living Six Graces. For part one, please click here.
Trudie received Simple Abundance, A Day Book of Comfort and Joy as a birthday gift the same week it went to #1 on the NY Times Best-sellers list. Trudie trained with Sarah Ban Breathnach, the author of Simple Abundance, and became certified to share the soul-felt teachings in workshops.
Gratitude Gardens
Sarah and Trudie’s words became “companion plants in the gardens of bringing women together to gently explore a fuller life. One of simply abundances.”
“I’ve shared this book with more people than any other book I’ve shared.” – Trudie.
So of course, I’m intrigued and have to ask Trudie about two of the six living graces, Simplicity and Order.
And particularly Order. It’s a word that sounds so … rigid sometimes. How does that fit with living six graces ? Seems conflicting.
Trudie describes Simplicity as filtering out the chaos and the chatter from our lives. Surrounding ourselves with the things that we love. Asking yourself as you simplify: Do I love it? Is it functional? Is it sentimental?
It’s about energy, too. This isn’t something we think about very often. I often hear about too much visual clutter, too many thoughts in my head, too much out in sight — often visual. Energy is intriguing. Trudie asks “What’s the energy level in your home or schedule?”
And I’d ask how much is positive, uplifting, inspiring energy? The kind of energy which feeds you instead of drains you.
Clothespin doll by Lisa Allen. Photo (C) Lisa Allen
Remember how it felt when you cleaned out your papers or cleared your desktop? Or saw the faces of the people you donated your gently used craft supplies to? That’s the energy to covet and make happen in your life.
To keep that Simplicity in her life, Trudie imagines that she’s moving. Every year. She doesn’t really, though she has moved a lot. Once a year, she goes through her Things* and decides “Would I take this with me if we moved?”
Trudie tells me her milkshake maker appliance story as an example. A gift she no longer used but what could she do with it? She mentioned this to a colleague, who thought her school-aged daughters would LOVE the milkshake maker. And indeed they did — make milkshakes every day after school. Imagine the joy in the daughters’ lives for their gift. And Trudie’s, for the joy she’d given — just by giving up a milkshake maker. One single milkshake maker!
This bring us to Order. Trudie describes the benefits of this living grace. “Order in my life means I have some semblance of knowing what’s going on in my world. Some control.”
I like this; it’s not as rigid a definition as I’d thought of. “Some semblance” is a personal sense. My feeling of control and semblance of order won’t be the same as yours because it’s something I feel. And so it cannot be judged either.
Simplicity and Order — The silence between the notes of music. Without simplicity, we can’t hear the silence between the notes.
Silence, between the notes
Said another way: If you took all the silences out in between the notes, you’d have chaos.
And as Cindy Glovinsky says in her book (link below), isn’t life about cultivating that dance between order and chaos?
Thank you, Trudie, for giving us all some silence between the notes.
Resources:
*Making Peace with the Things in Your Life. Author, Cindy Glovinsky
Trudie’s Living with Six Graces website
