It's hard to write about the concept of "less" being "more" after the events of this last week. After all, with so many lost all at the same time ..who'd ever think of their loss as being more… other than more heartbreak, more sorrow….more questions about the values of those behind it all.

Yet the fundamental principle of 'less being more' has been gnawing away at me for some two years or more. It all started when a friend, on listening to my personal woes, chided me with the words "enough already". I couldn't have agreed more. I'd had enough. Enough of the demands, the unfulfilled commitments, the unmet expectations - of others and of myself. Yet I still felt as if I should be doing more, accomplishing more, giving more - getting more!

What is "enough"? When are we ever satisfied?

At the time it occurred to me that my dissatisfaction was coming from "too much". Too much "stuff"; too much time spent on things, and people, that brought no joy; too much effort spent trying to keep up…mostly with obligations and ritual behaviours that I'd allowed to grow on me over time like barnacles on a beached ship.

To cut a very long and painful story short….I began, bit by bit, to "unclutter" my life … of people, products, past-times and all manner of "peripherals" I'd accumulated over the years.

I can hardly believe how much more wonderful life and the world seem to be; how much easier it is to focus and get things done; how much more energy I have; and how much more time there is to devote to those things which matter. I suspect I might even be a nicer person to know these days!

While I have so much less than I had before… I can't begin to tell you how much more that's turned out to be.