Candy Paull

The Art of Simplicity: A Simple Guide to Focusing on the Essentials of the Heart
Key Word: Integrity
Key Concept: Divine wisdom
Cosmic Question: What priorities lead to peace and spiritual growth?
• You can create greater abundance in your life when you make conscious choices.
• Making right choices leads us beyond fear, anger, judgement, and other ego agendas into spiritual—and material—freedom.
Simplicity can be difficult to achieve in a world that clamors for "more! more! more!" But simplicity opens the way to the center of the heart--the still place where quiet, healing, and a still small voice await. Simplicity is making elegant choices, treasuring precious moments, and valuing that which is of eternal worth. Like Michelangelo who saw the statue of David in the heart of the stone, so we are called to reveal the inner beauty hidden in the chaos of our lives. Simplicity is singleness of heart, focused on the essentials of life, rather than being distracted by our desires and fears. Simplicity is a celebration of the heart--a chance to touch eternity in a moment of meditation. Simplicity is finding abundance in the small things.

The Freedom of Simplicity

It is a spiritual thing to comprehend what simplicity means.
—Frank Lloyd Wright

The singer opens her mouth and the pure tone floats out freely … and its simple beauty goes straight to the heart of the listener and nestles there. You have a gift to offer the world, a song that only you can sing. Like the soprano who has learned to get out of her own way so that her free voice may float on the wings of delight to the listener’s ears, you can make choices that empower you to bring the music of your life to a world that needs to receive the gift you bring.

Everyone is born with a song in the heart. Every person has a unique and wonderful gift to give. The pure life potential beats in every heart. And pure potential waits to be expressed.

However, like the soprano who had to learn how to focus and refine her gift so that her true voice could emerge, so you have to clear the way for your unique gift to emerge. The Art of Simplicity is written to inspire you to let the one true song of the heart emerge. Sharing wisdom from many sources, a little bit of practical advice, and a few ideas that might spark your thinking, this little guide encourages you to make the changes within that will flow out and transform your outer life. It encourages you to change habits that hold you back and remove the clutter of old beliefs that limit the free expression of the essential you. The Art of Simplicity helps you catch a glimpse of your own spiritual magnificence.

This book grew from my own experience of moving into freedom and simplicity. It is an ongoing process. But as I have learned to move beyond victimhood, blame, anger, fear, and all the ego games that held me back, I have discovered that every situation, every choice, every single experience in my life contains the potential for God to work all things together for the highest good and for me to express my unique, one-and-only heartsong in simplicity, love, and joy. I know this can happen for you, too.

No matter what your story, no matter what your past limitations, no matter what mountains must be moved, you have no less potential than any other human being on earth to become the person God created you to be. As you get in touch with the great inner simplicity within, you will see your life re-align itself in miraculous ways. You are a co-creator with God, and even small choices can change the trajectory of your life, if you are willing to step out in faith.

When your voice is finally free, you become the instrument. All of the events and choices of your life converge in a pure note of joy and peace. You experience the sensation of being at one with the energies of the Universe, a co-creator with God as you release the exquisite song and spin it out into the air. Alive from toes to fingertips, fully present and aware, you sense the life force moving in and through you. And it is beautiful. Because you have focused on the essentials of the heart, your gift is received gladly, for it rises from deep within and touches other hearts at their point of greatest need.

Let your true essence be the goal you seek, and seek to bring that true essence into everything you do—and everything you are. Let the song of love take flight in your life. Come explore the potential and magnificent power that has been buried beneath the clutter and confusion for so long. Enter into the freedom of simplicity.

Become aware of what is in you.
Announce it, pronounce it,
produce it, and give birth to it.
— Meister Eckhart