At Home on Earth | Kyle Kramer

Kyle Kramer

Kyle is the executive director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center, which offers interfaith educational programming in meditation, ecology, and social compassion.

He serves as a Catholic climate ambassador for the US Conference of Catholic Bishopssponsored Catholic Climate Covenant and is the author of Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living (Franciscan Media, 2021). He speaks across the country on issues of ecology and spirituality.

He and his family spent 15 years as organic farmers and homesteaders in Spencer County, Indiana.

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Making Room for Simplicity

Most of us have at least some inkling that our world faces significant challenges, both now and in the near future. And though it’s tempting to blame the greedy business executives, the filthy rotten “system” (however you define that), or the other political party, most of us also have an uneasy concern that we each bear some responsibility. At the same time, I think many of us also have the nagging sense that our own lives may be missing something, are way too full of things that aren’t life-giving— or perhaps both.

It’s one thing to have those feelings; it’s another to discern, in a faithful and honest way, what kinds of choices might contribute to the healing of the world and to a more personally fulfilling life. It’s out of those feelings and that discernment that I wrote Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living, which was published earlier this summer by Franciscan Media.

My goal in writing this book was to explore how to bring greater intentionality to the magnificent task of simplifying our lives so we can experience more personal satisfaction, freedom, and joy, but also so we can help support healthy communities and a healthy

planet. In the first part of the book, I reflect on four reasons why Christians (and others with spiritual commitments) might choose to adopt simpler lifestyles. I start with the assumption that we all want to be happy and content—but that we tend to fill our lives with unneeded clutter and complexity, which bring us the exact opposite: overwork, exhaustion, anxiety, debt, and loss of self-worth, among othSimplicity offers ers. Adopting practices of simplicity can help untangle a path toward us from these challenges a deeper and so that we can live a more more authentic centered, sane, and rewarding spirituality. life, with less stress and with more time, freedom, pleasure, and satisfaction. Simplicity also offers a path toward a deeper and more authentic spirituality. At its core, spirituality doesn’t mean adding a bunch of stuff to your life. As many mystics and spiritual masters have taught us, it’s more about subtracting whatever gets in the way of a healthy relationship with God and others. To put it another way, simplifying your external life can be an important aid to simplifying your internal life, so that you can be more present, humble, and grateful, and less encumbered by ego-drive.

SIMPLICITY FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS

These first two reasons for simplifying our lives have to do with our own personal growth and contentment. The other two have to do with how our actions connect with the wider world. Simplicity can invite us into solidarity and friendship with those who are poor, which is not only an act of justice and service, but another means of growing closer to God, who has a special love for the poor. Simplicity also helps us to not only be less harmful and destructive toward our planet, but also to grow in love for the earth by removing some of the layers of insulation that our busy lives place between us and the rest of the natural world.

If simplifying our lives can lead to more pleasure and satisfaction, greater spiritual maturity, and a caring connection to others and the earth, then how can we move toward it? Various areas of our lives present us opportunities for simplicity.

Dealing well with money is one of the most challenging and substantial ways to live out our values and to make room for simplicity in our lives. Money is a powerful energy force, and we can save, spend, and share it in a way that moves us from a fear of scarcity to a sense of sufficiency and abundance, which is the source of true wealth and freedom.

Work—whether paid or not—is another crucial arena where we can become our best selves, lean into our interdependence with others, and provide goods and services that are beautiful and useful. But play is just as important. We can make room for play, which we know how to do exquisitely well as kids but often forget in adulthood—even though play throughout our life span is an essential part of flourishing. Fortunately, play doesn’t have to entail expensive vacations or owning powerboats—it’s easy to do it close to home, within modest means.

MANY WAYS TO SIMPLIFY

Consider all the stuff we purchase, and what it might look like to truly and deeply appreciate the material world as the place where God is deeply incarnate—and, therefore, not fill our lives (and our landfills) with junk. Instead, we can choose to have fewer, higher-quality things that serve us, rather than enslave us.

Most of us are deeply ensnared by smartphones, email, social media, streaming services, and other types of technology, so we must learn how we can successfully navigate the brave new digital world. By drawing good boundaries, we can benefit from the gifts of modern technology but still have the freedom to work in distraction-free flow states and to craft our time in life-giving ways. Finally, simplifying our lives can help us lean into our interdependent relationships with one another and the rest of the natural world. In some ways—like in the arena of food and cooking—simplicity might actually seem more complicated in the beginning, but embracing our relational nature can be a beautiful, intentional path to becoming our best selves.

My book isn’t a book of answers and prescriptions, but an exploration by a fellow pilgrim who is trying to live a faithful, free, satisfying life. If you choose to read it, I hope it brings you closer to joy and flourishing, which is your divine birthright.

HELPFUL TIPS

MORE WAYS TO PARE DOWN

1Money isn’t the only way to exchange goods and services. Choose a period of time—a week is good—when you decide to minimize your use of money. What creativity does it awaken in you? What connections with others does it nurture? What are the challenges and satisfactions?

2Try to create and preserve regular, sizable blocks of time when you are completely away from digital devices and their content. Acknowledge the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) anxiety it creates, but stay with the discomfort, and pay attention to how it feels to have those breaks.