I'm not one to beat around the bush, so let's just dive right in shall we? Jen Hatmaker has written a beautifully inspiring book entitled "7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess." She had me thinking hard from the first paragraph, and as the book went on, my thoughts began to swirl around me in a sea begging for change. See, Jen is a pastor's wife down in Austin, TX, and she has a deep love for Jesus and a deep desire to see change in the world.
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7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees) took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence."
After reading 7 and talking about it with a girlfriend of mine, (and of course encouraging everyone I could to read it as well) I decided to embark on my own journey of identifying excess in my life and fighting back. I knew from the beginning that clothing was an area I could use some paring down in and found myself actually looking forward to this first little experiment. So in case you haven't read Jen's book, I'll fill you in on a few rules I'm taking on, as well as what I'm modifying.
1. 7 articles of clothing for 30 days.
2. Including shoes.
3. EXCLUDING underwear (c'mon, you didn't really expect me to include that did you?!)
4. I get a give for running clothes because I'm running a half marathon on March 10, so I have one pair of shorts, one sports bra and one long sleeved running top that ALL count as (1) item on the list of seven. After March 10, it will just be the running shoes.
As you can see below, I've included one 3/4 sleeve black shirt, one green t-shirt, one black cardigan, one paisley dress, one pair of jeans, one pair of boots and my running items, that count as one "piece".
5. No accessories........GASP!! Hang on, I think my heart stopped for a second.
So that's it folks. There ya go.
Now to get a little perspective as to where I'm coming from, here are a few shots from my side of the closet...
Folks, I own enough articles of clothing to clothe an entire village in a third world country. All those hangers that look empty up there? They're not. A pair of pants sits on each one of them. And if I'm being completely honest here, which I am, I only wear two pair of jeans out of the seven that I own. Seriously. Who needs this much stuff???
So for the next 30 days, until March 16th, if you see me, you know what I'll be wearing. I'll be documenting my days in my journal and here online, so come back by to see how things are going.
A few other fasts I'm looking forward to experimenting with are:
- media
- food
- possessions
- waste
- spending
- stress
Check out the book!
