In practice today I had my favourite tunes playing in the background and a song I have loved forever spoke to me ever more clearly than it has before. Society, by the incredible Eddie Vedder…

“It’s a mystery to me
We have a greed with which we have agreed
And you think you have to want more than you need
Until you have it all, you won’t be free

When you want more than you have, you think you need
And when you think more than you want, your thoughts begin to bleed
I think I need to find a bigger place
Cause when you have more than you think, you need more space”

For even the most minimalistic of us, we seem to want so much more than we need in this western society, it’s overwhelming and it can so easily be our undoing. I consider myself a minimalist, but looking around my house you wouldn’t know it. I have so much crap that I never use and rarely even look at, but can’t bring myself to throw out. Old clothes, jewellery, books etc are filling every cupboard in the place and I seem to be constantly sorting through the ‘stuff’ only to find more of it coming out at me. This is most definitely part of why I only have one child, children are the biggest consumers of our society and I feel that having our one perfect precious little princess is more than enough. I could go on and on about how waste freaks me out, how it makes me dizzy to think about how much material misuse there is in our world and how if only we could sacrifice a few small luxuries to give to those less fortunate the world would be a much more equal place. But instead of standing on my high horse and preaching I thought I’d share with you my 5 most prized possessions, those which, if my house were on fire, I would run back in to grab…

1. My family – while I realise they are not my possessions(!), they are my everything and I would most definitely run into a burning building to save my husband and daughter.
2. My dog – goes without saying, she’s a pain in the ass but I love her
3. My photos – from all the way back to when I travelled the globe and met my gorgeous man, to high school with my besties, I have photos that came before the days of technology and I would be absolutely devastated if I lost these precious memories.
4. My journals – I have kept, and written, words of both wisdom and rubbish that I look forward to one day sharing with my little girl, so she can see that all she thinks and feels is completely normal.
5. This was a toss up between my Yoga mat and my Thermomix – both things I could buy again but both are very special to me and really my only material possessions I could not live without!

Well this is it, this is what means most to me in life and the only ‘things’ that mean anything to me, so why the hell do I have so much other stuff?! What would your 5 things be?

Alicia xxx