Reading tends to make one hungry pretty quickly, have you noticed?
I have once again picked up reading the Harry Potter series from where I left off last month - The order of the Phoenix. With winter flexing its wings, I have been curled under the comfort of my blanket and the book supported on my chest, or sometimes on a pillow as my eyes read on. I don't know if it's the cold or what, I've been longing for midnight snacks every time I sit lie down with a book for the past few days.
I got pretty hungry around midnight yesterday. No, I wasn't probably hungry. It was just the cravings to munch on something - the cravings increase as the story fills up with suspense. I wasn't going to order some snacks and waste unnecessarily in the middle of the night, for no reasonable reason whatsoever. That's just not my style. I wasn't also going to bother my wife either, she was feeling a bit under the weather.
So I quietly crept out from underneath the blanket and walked to the kitchen cabinet to look for something I quickly make and munch on! I was supposed to some grocery shopping earlier, but I too had been feeling under the weather too - hence options were limited.
I picked up a couple pieces of bread and walked towards the stove. We don't have a toaster, the pan works just fine. I lit up the gas and while I waited for the pan to heat up I thought of potential recipes. As you may have guessed, there really isn't much you can do with only bread and a hot pan except burn your toasts LOL! And burn I did!
I spread some honey on top of the burnt toasts to smoothen the bitterness - almost as steamed milk smoothens a sharp shot of espresso. Munching on the crunchy honey toast, I could not help but wonder how underrated a simple burnt toast with honey is as a midnight snack!
The reason I talk about this particular example is to show how intertwined "Minimalism" and "Simple Living" really is. If we start taking textbook definitions of each, we can go on and publish research papers and argue for hours. But that is contrary to the purpose of both minimalism and simple living - reducing complexity is the aim.
I have always considered both to be complementary to each other and not something to be choosing from. I do not like to to keep possessions in excess of what is really necessary - and that in turn helps me to make simplistic decisions. The above example if we dissect, I didn't clutter my kitchen with too many options I'd barely use. Hence with my options were limited simplified to begin with, I didn't have to go through the hassle of decluttering my thoughts.
So I am into minimalism, which makes my simple living practices much easier. In other words, minimalism simplifies my life!
Just a simple burnt toast and some honey goes a long way you will find!