I Didn't Buy Anything New For 200 Days (And You Shouldn't Either)

When you stop buying stuff, you might very well find that you have quite enough.

The story of my 200-day Buy-Nothing-New challenge doesn’t start with an object or a possession. It starts with my dad, many months ago.

My father had been living with me as he went through chemotherapy treatments. He was fighting a melanoma which had spread. It was a stressful time, but it was bittersweet. Thinking of these times quickly brings tears of simultaneous sadness and gratitude to my eyes.

After months, my father was declared palliative and passed away less than a month later.

I’d never experienced the loss of someone I truly loved. Everything I’d heard about death and dying suddenly became a real and tangible experience. Like the sense of losing a piece of yourself. The despair at being helpless. Having people all around you but feeling so very lonely.

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