The Deliberately Simple Life

Yesterday I making bread dough. As I worked on it, I was thinking about everything that went into making the bread and how it really doesn't take much time, it just takes time over a long period of time. I was thinking about how good it was that I was able to work at home, take care of the house, the wood heating stove, hang the laundry out on the line and be there for my family while I wrote. In a few days I'll be able to go to school from home too.

I will let you know that I don't make a lot of money writing but what I can also tell you is that I enjoy the life that I live. I enjoy the simple pleasures of life. I have no real need for anything. I have a roof over my head, my home is warm enough in the winter and cool enough in the summer. I have food on my table and I have my health. I don't take any type of medication except for an occasional over-the-counter pain reliever(and that is happening less and less often). I don't have a car payment, I don't have a mortgage or pay rent.

I know that there are people who don't understand, sometimes I think my own husband doesn't understand that I like my simple life. I've got no complaints. Not that I don't want to grow in areas because I do but I want to grow in areas that I feel matter to me and promote the kind of lifestyle that I want to live.

I have purposely avoided a lot of the consumer propaganda that has so saturated the media lately. It's all a lie anyway. The house of cards will fall. There is no way that an economy based on rampant spending is going to do anything but put us further and further into debt. It is true of a home economy and it is true of a national economy as well. No one can spend their way into prosperity.

My securities aren't in stocks or bonds or even in the commodities market. My security first lies in the fact that I look to the eternal source to meet all my needs according to his riches in glory.

Second I am learning to get in tune with the natural processes around me. I am learning to accept the weather as it comes. Part of that lesson comes in the fact that I hang my laundry out on the line to dry. I hang out laundry when the sun is shining and I don't when it's raining.

Third I have learned that I can assist natures processes rather than manipulate them. I have learned that the earth wants to be healthy and by feeding her the right nutrients she will reward me with healthy foods. My compost pile is part of her life cycle. I save the nutrients in the form of kitchen and yard wastes, encourage the decomposition process then return the finished (sometimes just partially finished) compost to the garden for the microbes there to make available to the plants. My garden instead of sinking down over time builds up higher than the soil around it.

I have heard that during the coming year the price of food is going to go up. If that is true, perhaps it will encourage more people to build compost piles, to make their own bread, and to start growing more of their own food. If so, I will be here to help anyone who is interested to begin to develop their own deliberate simple life.