Simplicity is a difficult thing to come by. We live fragmented, disjointed lives, always running from something, to something. We’re trying to get more and more done with less and less time. It’s an impossible race that leaves us tired, empty, drained.

We as a society love to prize the man or woman who can do it all. We force thousands of college students out the doors of our universities each year with a diploma and an unwritten mandate to work 80 hours a week to ‘make a splash.’ We drill it into them that success is exceedingly important, ensuring they do whatever it takes to add a few extra cents to our price per share.

Of course, if they’re good we do reward them. But being good all too often means neglecting other aspects of their lives. They marry without understanding the commitment that covenant involves. They have kids thinking that they can realistically maintain their responsibilities both at work and at home. Over time, they’re left in a mode of being consistently stretched to their limit. When they’re working they’re beating themselves up for not being at Jason’s soccer game. When they’re making brownies they’re silently stressed about all the work they’re not getting done.

And that’s just the work-home dynamic. All the while, they’re not exercising enough, not reading enough, not volunteering enough, not talking to their friends or extended family enough.

We long for a simpler life, a life with less stress, more fulfillment. We wish we weren’t tired all the time. We wish we didn’t feel like we were constantly neglecting some important aspect of our lives. But we haven’t the faintest idea how to actually accomplish this.

We tell ourselves that we’re just casualties of our society. The world of today places these demands on us, just as it does to everyone else. There’s nothing we can do – except do our best to cope.

But what if there was a simpler life to be grasped – what if there was a way to find a more serene, peaceful, balanaced way of life?

What if you could say ‘no’ to people? What if you could decide beforehand how many commitments and of what variety you would undertake, resolving not to take on anything further? What if you could make a commitment to work on at most five projects or take on five clients, and be able to confidently turn down anything more, even if they were to be spectacularly profitable for your career or business?

What if you could stop desiring to be ‘well-known?’ What if you were to reject the notion that being more blogged about or technorati’d or whatever represented some measurement of success. What if you didn’t care about your online identity nearly as much as you do?

What if you resolved to use plain speech? What if you stopped trying to manipulate people with your words, stopped trying to get people to understand you or see your way? What if you stopped flattering people when you didn’t really mean it, racking up a series of small favors in hope of being repaid someday? What if you could only use 1000 words a day, and had to give up the ability to explain yourself? What would your words be? What if you could do this without worry? What if everything that came out of your mouth was full of honesty, sincerity, grace?

What if you could stop desiring more? What if you made a resolution to identify a standard of living you could be comfortable with, a standard you wouldn’t rise above even if your means expanded considerably? What if you made the decision that as long as your needs were met, the rest of that money could be given away to people or causes that could benefit dramatically from it?

What if, every month, you went around your house and looked for something that you deemed valuable…and gave it to someone you knew who’s life would be blessed by it? What if, instead of cursing aloud to anyone who would listen when that 10 year old stole my iPod in the subway last year, I just gave it to him before he could take it?

What if we approached our financial life as a system of pipes instead of a system of buckets? What if money was an instrument to be freely shared instead of a status symbol to be hoarded?

What if we got rid of our televisions and read more books, visited more museums, took more walks, made more friends? What if we played outside more – when was the last time we actually played?

What if we realized that our kids laugh 20 times more often than we do? What if we tried to be less serious, more joyful?

What if we got closer to the earth? What if we studied the trees and the flowers and the birds and realized that their existence was singular, their purpose clearly defined? What if we realized that maybe our lives are supposed to be similarly ordered?

What if our lives were meant to be focused on one thing, on one Person? What if that person were able to give us everything we needed to have happy, healthy, productive lives? What if that balance we could never seem to find were given to us – if we realized that everything, including ourselves, has a season, a proper time and place? What if we were to submit to those cycles of life, and to determine the proper place for everything by asking this Person who loves us and desires our happiness?

What if simplicity of life weren’t something to dream about but something to be grasped? What if less really was more?