black Friday

When it's time to click the pics I put everything aside, and give my full attention before I can decide, is this pic worth a click? In you I must confide, sometimes it is, sometimes its not, sometimes I'm unsatisfied.

The Elephant Butte Marina is just starting to experience a semi-rare, for me anyway, 360° sunset. Most sunsets are just an area where the sun is going down or just coming up. But a 360° sunset covers the whole sky. The cloud cover has to be just perfect for a sunset like that and I consider myself lucky if I see one or two a year.

It was another cold start to my day with overnight temperatures down around freezing. Daytime temps are okay, around 65° but it seems like this is colder than it should be for this time of year, especially this far south. But Denver is getting single-digit temperatures and snow so things could be a lot worse for me.

So this is Black Friday? boondocking at Elephant Butte State Park its hard to tell. Instead of a day when I want to run out and go buy something, It looks just like a normal Friday from where I sit. And the reason for that is I don't need any of the stuff that most businesses are selling. I need groceries, and usually some grocery items are on sale every day. And I need diesel fuel, but they never seem to put that on sale. But all of the usual crap they put on sale on Black Friday I don't want, and more importantly; don't need.

I've spent all my life buying, gathering, collecting, and storing things that I never really needed, I wanted them, but I didn't need them, I just thought I did. But ever since I became a full-timer I've been simplifying my life which is how I've been able to live in such a tiny home for the last couple of years.

Since there is a tendency to fill up any empty space around us with things that we don't need, I think I've finally reached a point where I have no more space to fill up. What I have filled my tiny home up with are things that I need and very few things that I want.

A few things are obvious, such as I need a pot to cook in, and I need a cup to drink from. But some things are not so obvious such as, do I really need a camera, or a computer? According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, I don't actually NEED those things but they do make my life better, and bring me great joy, and that is a "need" for most people.

In simplifying my life the goal was never to live with the bare minimum, I think the guys staggering down the sidewalk pushing a grocery cart have that lifestyle pretty much figured out. My goal was to get rid of things that I really didn't need, and no longer even brought me pleasure, and keep the things that I needed to live comfortably, and made me happy.

Needless to say 20 years ago I had lots of things that made me happy, or at least I thought they did, but through trial and error, mostly error, I slowly came to the realization that happiness is in your mind, not in the wealth you may accumulate , not in the place you're at, and certainly not in the things you own, I've had all of that so I feel I can speak with some authority on the subject.

Happiness comes from your outlook on life... Nothing more, nothing less. There's happy people in prison, and there's miserable people in mansions because those are just places and things, and places and things seldom bring happiness.

Happiness is found in the joy of being right here, right now, doing what YOU enjoy doing. Waiting on your next purchase to make you happy, waiting for another day to bring you joy, waiting on someone else to make you happy, means you will always be waiting till tomorrow to be happy, and like they say "tomorrow never comes."

So I tend to believe what the old song says about "Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose." Which by the way was written by Kris Kristofferson, and made famous by Janis Joplin. It does appear to me that based on my life experiences, the more stuff you own, the more it owns you. Maybe that's why I'm happier in a tiny home on wheels that's already full of the stuff I need with very little room left for stuff I want.

Theboondork

This picture was taken looking directly into the sunset.

The Lance is in a different direction than the sunset. And the sunset is spreading across the sky.

The Marina is in the opposite direction of the sunset, and the sunset has now spread across the entire sky.

Watching that sunset develop last night made me happy, happier than I ever was buying things and spending money. Most of those things I bought are gone now, given away, or thrown away; but that sunset will last in my mind forever.