On My Plate

I like the following quote from a guy who is a chef.  Wylie Dufresne. “"Jean-Georges Vongerichten showed me the value in taking away, taking things off of a plate. He always talked about two, three, four elements on a plate. That's it. The more you put on the plate, the easier it is to hide. The more you take away, there's nowhere to hide—it has to be good."
Why that rings a bell with me is it is the way I have been thinking of late.  In many ways I am wanting to clear the decks to concentrate on what is important to me.
I did hear someone complain about their schedule.  They were incredibly busy.  They had no time for things that came up they considered important.  It then dawned on them that they were responsible for their schedule, and they could cull it anytime they wanted.  As a result they went through their schedule and dismissed about 25% of things they were doing that got in the way of what they really wanted to do.
For me of late the picture I have had in my mind was of a desk.  I am clearing the desk and only putting back what matters to me. 
Maybe it is a bit like our yard right now.  We are in the process of deciding what really matters and culling what does not.  Probably the older a person gets the more important this is seen to become.  We often say we want to do it now because all things being equal there will come a day when we cannot do it, and what matters to us may not matter to another and we have little control over what happens.
But what Wylie says adds another dimension.  To me it is true something can be hidden on the plate.  It may look good but that is no guarantee that it is good.
So right now, things are about simplifying rather than complicating.