Year Without Shopping

Here is what’s been going on with me, my family and our shopping fast aka a year without shopping: I am still noticing the faded, worn and out of date things in my wardrobe, on my shoe rack and in my home.  I wonder as I do if I notice more because I cannot replace them or because it really has been a while since I have updated some things.  Probably a little of both.    I am certainly not underestimating the power of wanting what I can’t have.  That is definitely there.  I am glad we are, FINALLY, transitioning to spring because a lot of my socks are developing holes and my boots are on the more extreme end of worn out.  But now that concern can take a back seat as my feet break free and I can wear out my flip flops instead! I have noticed other than the above preoccupation with the possibility of replacing worn out things and my deep and abiding fear of being without sunglasses for the summer I have had a burning desire to buy exactly one thing so far these past four months.  One thing that I really want to get and have had to deny myself. A white t-shirt. I know, I know I am very glamorous.  But I have a thing about white t-shirts.  I just like them.  You can wear them with so many things, dressed up or down.  They really are the casual girls little black dress.  Somehow all of the white shirts I have owned have deserted me.  They’ve gotten holes in them, stains (duh they are white) that are unfixable or more likely have been stolen by the myriad of sisters and daughters who troop through my life.  So yes, mourn for me friends I am without a white t-shirt at this time! But my real point is what this desire has illuminated for me.  In four months this is the only thing I have really wanted to buy and had to deny myself.  Now but for this fast I certainly would have been buying things since January.  I’m sure I have not gone four months without making a purchase.  So I wonder – what have I been buying?  The answer, I guess given this experiment so far, is things I don’t really want or need.  Probably not without exception, but the fact that in these four months I have only wanted for this one thing makes me think about all of the things I would have bought that I did not truly desire or at all need. So, as I near my halfway point with plenty of sunglasses and no white t-shirts I think about what kind of consumer I have been and what kind I will be in the future.  I hope to become more intentional and more thoughtful about what I buy and to continue to learn about myself through the rest of the fast. Oh and for those of you following along at home my girls complaints about the fast have slowed somewhat – although I did learn recently that my older daughter has a countdown on her phone for when it ends – down to the second.  Oh well I am thankful for any progress and even the complaints lead to the, occasional, meaningful conversation about the hows and the whys of what we are doing.