Editor’s Note: Today’s guest post is by Nina Yau. Nina is the author of The Radical Minimalist and Minimalist Freedom. She writes regularly at Castles in the Air.
The strength of the thick air surfaces and clings to my face, now damp with dense beads of perspiration, as I run faster and faster. My legs burn passionately but never stop going. My panting lungs burst and scream for oxygen as I heave and gulp quick pockets full of warm air, underneath a sweltering afternoon sun.
My feet blister and cry out for gentle attention they so desperately need. Later. Not now. Not yet.
My piercing, focused eyes stare straight ahead as my body blasts forward, purely on momentum and incredible internal power I never knew I had. I can’t stop. Forward, I must go.
**
There comes a time when you realize you are simply going too fast. But more often than not, by the time we realize it, we have already made it so far ahead we barely even notice what we’ve missed on our way forward.
A minimalist throws out her old papers, trophies and medals from decades past, scraps of junk here and there that have no meaning whatsoever. She continues her momentum, increasing speed and gaining confidence the more she tosses out. Forward. On and on. Never stopping. Never letting up.
Until one day, she realizes she’s thrown out everything in her life. Everything. [click to continue…]