How a Spiritual Minimalist Views True Wealth
One of the “Seven Aspects of Spiritual Minimalism” that I wrote about a few weeks ago, encourages us to see the physical and spiritual world as feeding off of each other. Number four reads:
Destroy the Spiritual and Material World Dichotomy - A product of Modernism is that we consider the material world as primary and relegate spiritual to religious times and spaces. This creates a haze on our Christian lens of life and the world in which we live. We don’t see ourselves as participating in a sacred world. Instead, we consume a material one.
So, how can I practically break down this dichotomy in my daily life?
For starters, I can change my view of wealth.
John Ruskin, the famous Victorian art critique and artist, defined wealth as "the real appreciative possession of what is good.” With this definition in mind, let's break down some ideas that might help us create homes that are inviting, restful, and beautiful.
But first, here are three things you can think through as you set about making your home a place wealthy with rest and love.
1. Reassess Your View of Wealth
Ruskin believed we interpret wealth backwards. We view wealth in our world as the accumulation of things and money. This kind of economy makes sense since it’s what most working governments use. But what about the individual person?
Ruskin challenges us to think about wealth as the possession and appreciation of good things. On Ruskin’s line of thinking, a person does not need to possess certain material goods to be wealthy. Rather, she needs to appreciate the good and beautiful things around her.
We become wealthier the more we learn and understand and appreciate those wonderful things already in existence—those good and beautiful things.
This way of thinking smashes our current ideas of what it means to be wealthy. It also reveals that you can possess good and beautiful things, and yet still remain impoverished if you do not take the time to see them.
2. Evaluate What You Desire
What things do I desire? Are they good? Beautiful? Do I seek to understand them? Do I appreciate them? Or does my desire for the profane, the accumulation of things, and money reveal my heart to be truly impoverished? These are not enjoyable questions to think about.
But when we do honestly consider them, we might blush at our collective lack of wealth.
3. Reconsider the Value of Spaces
The environments we create and cultivate in our private life, in our public vocations, and in our places of worship matter. Think about your home. I believe beauty in the home must battle with the digital world. If we promote and make our homes focused on digital media and screens then we foster environments of noise, distraction, and isolation, rather than environments of joy, hospitality (invitation), and communion.
Studies show that when you sit down with another person for a meeting or lunch, and you place your phone on the table, you are sending them a psychological message: I’m really not that interested in what you have to say.
If that is true with our interpersonal relationships, think about what the presence of multiple devices or televisions in our gathering spaces communicates to people we invite into our homes (this also applies to gathering spaces for worship, but that’s another rant altogether). Think about the impact such an environment has on the formation of children.
Training Our Affections
Ruskin’s idea of true wealth hearkens to a concept St. Augustine and Aristotle and C.S. Lewis wrote about: ordo amores, or, the training of the ordinate affections. It is simply the idea that when we educate the young, we should help them know and understand the beautiful things they should love and the evil things they should hate.
By helping them value the beautiful and discard the profane, we empower them with right affections so that when they mature they can then nurture themselves, and perhaps one day their own family, with true wealth.
Ok, on to some tips for creating a home space that inspires rest, love, and imagination. (I just through imagination in there because it sounded cool.)
Helpful Tips
What are some simple things we can do to foster environments of beauty? Here are a few ideas we've been experimenting with over the last few years.
1. Introduce the rhythm of gardening into your home.
It demands time away from devices, is educational for adults and children, gathers family members around a common goal, and creates a sense of wonder and accomplishment.
Start small; a nice 4x8 raised bed, perhaps. See what the presence of growing vegetables does to your spirit and the atmosphere of your home.
Never tried gardening before? No worries. Check out Nicole Burke’s site and jump over that hurdle.
2. Replace screens with a focus on music. We keep instruments in plain view and make them easily accessible.
Not a lot, just two or three. Their presence invites exploration and play. Not everyone has a musical background, so exchanging the presence of a television for a great sounding sound system can be a great way to invite joy, dancing, and family fun. Our girls love to create playlists and dance to them.
3. Replace TV time with art, or games.
I’m not much of a gamer, so I’ve taken the art route the past two years. I like to use our post-dinner times for watercoloring while Mommy gets some downtime to herself. I blast classical music and paint with the girls. It’s produced some very sweet times of conversation and delight. Not to mention it's developing a love for producing works of art in our girls.
4. Refocus the center of your home.
Instead of a TV, make an area for reading. The presence of books can induce a person to sit and read, rather than watch. Create space to talk rather than to surf the internet. This can be as simple as readjusting the furniture and keeping tablets and computers upstairs or away in drawers (or, God forbid, in the trash!).
5. Create delightful outdoor spaces.
Did you know 25% of Americans spend the entire day indoors? A shocking statistic. With that in mind, create an area in the backyard where you might go read a book or relax with your family. The fire pit is our favourite. But it’s also amazing what an ENO or Kammok hammock can do.
In our last house, all I had to do was set up my hammock, which takes 60 seconds, and the girls came running. They’d play in it for hours or just sit with him in it. The idea is to make the rhythm of your home one that fluctuates from inside to outside, rather than just inside.
