Discovering Simplicity

The thought of living a simple life has been on my mind, and on my heart, for several years now.  And it seems it's been on other people's minds for a lot longer than that, according to Thoreau.  What I've been pondering so heavily the past days, though, is what does it mean to simplify?  We all read blogs and most of us have discovered Pinterest, so the ideas for simplifying are out there.  Hundreds of ideas exist for simplifying and organizing your life, everything from the baby's diapers to the influx of papers at the start of school.  And so many beautiful ways to do it all, too!  The choices and the ideas are endless and can be overwhelming. 

But while I can take someone's idea on storing pots and pans more efficiently, I cannot take someone's simple life and make it mine.  I think that has been my stumbling block.  Searching and searching for simplicity when in actuality it's been within my grasp all along.  Someone else's simple life would not fit my family; it would not fit in the home we have made.  I think finding the simple life is all about a person's vocation(s). 

I am a wife, a mother, a homemaker, a crafter, a teacher, a musician, a writer, a band mom, a scout mom.  The list could go one.  And each of these vocations keep me plenty busy, so living simply is not about being less busy, but about being busy with your own life.  Not the life someone else wants you to live.  Not the life you think you should be living, but the life you have been given.  Does being reminded of this truth make my days happier, easier, less stressful?  Not necessarily, but it is easier to see purpose in what I do.  And that makes a world of difference.

Yet, I think there is still more to living simply.  I shared a treasure of a book a while ago written by Sarah Ban Breathnach.  Since then I have found a daybook written by her which I have also found interesting and helpful.  It's called Simple Abundance and while she is a bit paganistic for me, she does a wonderful job at encouraging us to find simple pleasures for ourselves.  She encourages the reader to dream, spend time in quiet reflection, craft and create a little each day, begin a gratitude journal - which I'll share on Monday - and so much more. 

You see, living simply is not about cutting out all outside activities, nor is it about quitting your most hated household chores.  It's about working at your vocation and finding the joy within it.  All we have is a gift of God.  That means my very life is a gift.  A gift!  Something to cause me happiness and to grow me into a better person.  I tell my boyos that sometimes we have to do things we don't like.  That means sometimes I just have to spend some time ironing!  I just have to!  Like it or not.  But I can also spend some of my day cutting paper for cards and scrapbooking.  Love cutting paper!  Crazy, huh?  But that is part of who I am. 

So, my hope is that as I go through more of my ponderings of a simple life, and as I blog about it, you will share your discoveries of your own simple life.  Maybe we can simplify together.  Encourage one another to live as our authentic selves.  The women/mothers/wives/friends we have been created to be. 

 

"Though we accomplish much of what we set out to do, we sense that something is missing in our lives and - fruitlessly - search "out there" for the answers.  What's often wrong is that we are disconnected from an authentic sense of self."                

                                                                                                  -Emily Hancock


  

Of Bathing Suits and Beauty Queens

(FAIR WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS MY CLEAR OPINION OF WOMEN'S BATHING SUITS THESE DAYS.  NO OFFENSE TO YOUR PERSONAL CHOICES INTENDED.)

During our stay at Kelleys Island, OH I have enjoyed one of my favorite hobbies...watching people!  The front porch is perfect for that, especially because we are two doors away from the hoppin' "downtown" part of KIO.  It's a beautiful, quiet island...except on the weekends.  HooBoy, the people come a flockin' in like seagulls!  The language is bad, the drinking is bad, the clothing is bad.  Mmm!  I am so thankful that my boyos are distracted with their play.




So as I sit on the porch watching the golf carts roll down the street, and the pedestrians meander down the sidewalk, I notice the general lack of clothing on the female figures.  The bottoms head up north, while the tops migrate south.  You know, the Daisy Duke look.


The bathing suits are even worse.   They just seem to shrink inward from all directions.


 
Tell me how these hold the girls together!  Please!



My nightmarish thought about bikini bottoms is that someone would give a tug on the dangling string on the center one.  Bye bye suit!  "But it was just a joke!"  Funny Sad thing is, some girls would laugh at it.

I once saw two young girls running across hot sand to the cool water.  With one hand, they held the girls in and with the other they held up their swim bottoms.  I just had to shake my head.  "Why bother?" I ask myself.  "Might as well just wear their underwear."  But then again, maybe their choice of intimates is even smaller...let's not go there.

The suit examples above, I found at Kohls.com.  Pretty modest choices comparatively speaking.  But still ones I would not wear.  And I have several friends who would not wear these either, so I know I'm not alone in my opinions and beliefs.  Speaking of beliefs, doesn't it say something in the Bible about women being modest?  Hm.  I believe so!  Sorry, while speaking the truth I am getting a bit sarcastic in my delivery.  My Hubby's feeling on this is that when women dress this way there is no mystery left for her husband to discover.  Nothing left for her to keep special, just for him.  And I know there are those of you who are concerned about your daughters.  Trying to find modest bathing suits for little girls might not be as easy as it once was.  While I don't have daughters to shop for, I do have my three boyos I need to be concerned about.  We, Hubs and I, need to be teaching them how to respect girls and young women.  It's hard when some of them dress like Daisy.

And for my final thoughts!  I am just full of sarcastic feeling today!  Not sure what it is.  Maybe it's just that I'm fed up with watching people who don't know how to treat themselves or anyone else with respect.  In observing the dress habits of the women, I have noticed that the men dress modestly.  The shorts are long, sometimes past the knees.  T-shirts are big.  Swim trunks are long as well.  So why is that?  What is it that tells women to wear clothing too small to stay on the hanger?

I welcome your thoughts and opinions.


By the way, I have a one piece skirted suit and a two piece suit consisting of a tank-style top and boy shorts.  What do you consider modest?