Half, or half not: an experiment in minimalism.

Allyson Marie
2 min readFeb 3, 2015

--

I suppose it started when I found out I had cancer. The word itself is pretty jarring. Cancer. Sometimes I have to say it out loud just to remind myself: Hey, you. You’re sick.

The random evolutionary misprint in copied cells — the evolution of a bad egg. I grieved for the appropriate, or not, amount of time. Every adult decision I will have to make some how has to be made immediately these days. Everything is emergent. For a few weeks I split my time between helping other people get comfortable with the word — Cancer. Remember to say it out loud, it helps — drifting between appointments and waiting for phone calls.

I am not the sit around and wait type; I guess mine is a story about perspective.

So for the next few weeks, I have decided that I will do. I will not wait. Or drift. Instead, I will cut my worldly possessions in half (sorry, hubs, but I’m getting yours down, too), and I am beginning tonight by halving my apps, music, photos, and internet presence — it was just too late in the day to launch into my shoe collection, frankly.

Screen clutter

Goodbye superfluous social media. See you later fitness apps I will never use and Pinterest which just makes me feel like shit for not having DIY votive lanterns and actual hay bales at my wedding. First to go will be Amazon, ModCloth, LivingSocial — no more mindless phone shopping on the train, no more tweeting pictures from stop lights and hospital waiting rooms. It’s time to spend some time with myself.

Tomorrow, the linen closet.

--

--