T H I N G S | S A L T Y W A L K S

I'm surrounded by stuff. As I'm sure you are too.

If I look around my room I am certain that I will see at least 18 things that I don't need anymore. Either a book I haven't read in 2 years, or a shirt that I now hate.

Yet I always buy more and more, trying to fill a void because as a human, I am programmed to lose interest in things once I see something better.

I need to de-clutter my life, which I find amusing because I've been trying to do so for the last year or so now. But I've taken the wrong approach to it. When I think of de-cluttering my life, and home, I think of getting rid of things that I don't like anymore, when I should be thinking that I should be getting rid of the things that I don't need anymore.

Which is what I am going to do. Although it probably will be hard to try and explain to my parents why I'm suddenly finding better homes for most of my things.

Now I am certainly not going to go crazy and only have 10 things in my bedroom. No. I'm going to start small.

Maybe getting rid of the books I don't read anymore, or maybe throwing away the posters on my walls which I now have come to hate.

I'm not going to become an extreme minimalist, but I don't want to hoard things I don't need either.

I need to keep moving forward.

I need a fresh start, away from the idea that things complete me. I need to be enough. 

Instead of filling myself with things I want to fill it with experiences. 

And I hope you do to. 

Now, for real, see you in 2017. 

C H R I S T M A S | S A L T Y W A L K S

Everything comes and goes.

Yet I didn't realise this until now, because for me, Christmas has always been a stress about what to get people and when to see them. It was a preparation to see the people who are in my life, but not for the right reasons. 

I am a Catholic, and have never been ashamed of that before. But this Christmas I was. Not because of what the religion teaches or anything like that, but because I forgot in myself, the true meaning of Christmas. 

I am by no means a strong follower of faith, and I often doubt God and Jesus. But not because I am not someone who prays every day, or goes to Church every Sunday. It's my own choice not to do these things, just like how I make the decision to lean toward science, than faith Yet I found that I couldn't even offer this one day to my religion, and even though we went to Church.. I felt as though I didn't. Because to me, it was a hassle. A chore that I didn't want to do. 

Everything comes. And everything goes. 

We have turned Christmas into such a materialistic day where we focus on the wrong things entirely. 

All I've seen on YouTube and Instagram and Snapchat are the presents that people have received. And although they say they aren't bragging, I can't help but think that a small part of them are. Because it doesn't matter what you get. Or who you see. Or what you do.

Because Christmas itself has changed. 

We have changed it. 

We have turned it into something so ugly, hid behind something that seems so beautiful. 

I will always love Christmas, and everything about it. And I don't want this to seem as though I don't. But I want to be that voice of reason that reminds us all that we should celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. Because I forgot. I forgot that this day was meant to be about Jesus. 

And I think it will be nice, for people like me, to devote at least 1 of the 365 days to him. Because like I said, I am not someone who takes faith and religion as seriously as most, nor do I disregard it and say I don't believe, even though I might not. 

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Hope to talk to you soon. 

See you in 2017.