IMYM Faith & Practice, 2009, pp 49-50
The increase of business became my burden, for though my natural inclination was toward merchandise, yet I believed Truth required me to live more free from outward cumbers and there was now a strife in my mind between the two; and in this exercise my prayers were put up to the Lord, who graciously heard me and gave me a heart resigned to his holy will. Then I lessened my outward business, and as I had opportunity told my customers of my intentions that they might consider what shop to turn to, and so in a while wholly laid down merchandise, following my trade as a tailor, myself only, having no apprentice.
John Woolman, Journal4
John Woolman never let the demands of his business grow beyond his real needs. . . . His outward life became simplified on the basis of an inner integration. . . . He yielded to the Center and his life became simple.
Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion5
Simplicity is making sure there is always enough in reserve to answer the call.
Elizabeth Moen-Mathiot at the Colorado Quaker Women’s Retreat, late 1980s
To Quakers, simplicity is a spiritual quality that denotes an inward centeredness, a singleness of being that is responsive to the Divine within. Simple living is a creative act that frees us from extraneous concerns and enables us to devote attention to the Divine. A simple life is often hard to achieve. It means consuming or collecting nothing in excess of what is needful for our health and well-being and understanding what that is. What is needful may differ from one person to another, but in general it means that which is not extraneous in terms of time, possessions, speech, and activities.
Simplicity is at the root of what we call plain speaking. In the interest of declaring readily and easily our true meaning to one another rather than hiding or obscuring it, we try to avoid judgmental, pretentious, and ornamented language.
With regard to time, simplicity means handling important matters first, allowing them an appropriate share of our time, and taking care not to overcommit ourselves. Rather than rushing from one engagement to another, simplicity leads us to be deliberate in our choices about how we spend the precious gift of time. It guides us away from rigidity regarding the demands made on the hours of our days and encourages us to arrange a right apportionment of time to our religious life, our family, our work, our friends, and ourselves. Flowing through every decision we make concerning our priorities is an awareness of how we are serving the Divine within ourselves and other human beings
Early Friends wore unadorned plain dress out of a desire to observe simplicity and be free from vanity. Although most Friends no longer wear Quaker plain dress, we do dress simply without ostentatious display. Moreover, although we may affirm the human urge for self-adornment, we do not call attention to ourselves by what we wear.
Simplicity is also expressed in our stewardship of our material resources. It implies consuming no more than we need and can afford, not spending beyond our means, providing what we require for our well-being in every sense. We understand that poverty distracts from the life of the Spirit as readily as overabundance does. The measure of deprivation or overabundance is, to some degree, different for different people.
Simplicity also implies the responsible use of what we have and avoiding poisoning our environment. When we have ordered our lives according to our reasoned understanding of what we really need, we become not confined or limited by our choices but freed by them.
In its essence, simplicity means keeping at the deep center of our lives a sense of the Divine, a daily awareness of the Light within us, so that all other matters fall into their rightful place.
