Talk to Fa

I’m thinking a lot about material possessions.

The other day, I spent all day decluttering the kitchen. I’d already reduced a significant amount of clutter in my home over the past couple of years, and I still had so much to get rid of. I put together a donation box full of usable items and took it to Goodwill on the same day. I wanted it gone, out of my sight.

I ask myself which items I really want to keep. I can be impulsive and a bit extreme. Should I get rid of everything? Should I keep some? If so, which ones?

Lately, I find myself detaching more and more from material possessions. I keep wondering what the absolute bare minimum is for me. This applies not just to physical clutter, but literally everything in my life.

When I was little, I resonated with a cartoon character called Snufkin. I don’t remember much about the stories or what Snufkin did in them, but I saw myself in him. I vibed with him. Last week, I randomly thought of Snufkin and found this character description on the official website of Moomin, the cartoon.

Snufkin is a philosopher and a wanderer who enjoys the simple things in life – fishing, playing his harmonica and walking alone at night. A free spirit with no interest in owning things, Snufkin enjoys challenging authority figures such as park keepers. He greatly values his independence, but returns to Moominvalley every spring to spend time with his good friend Moomintroll. Snufkin is widely admired for his quiet confidence and self-belief, especially by the smaller and more timid residents of Moominvalley.

I read the rest of the page dedicated to Snufkin, and I was stunned. It felt like they were talking about me. Decades ago, the childhood me already knew who I was and what I wanted.