Thursday, July 17, 2014

I Do Not Settle For Less. This Is What I Need

I've had my walk and am soaking wet but it's not as hot as it has been. I had to alter my path today due to the huge puddles, more like tiny ponds, in some parts of the wooded dirt roads which are lined with such tall grass that I would only walk in them if I was trying to get Lyme disease. I saw the pointy tracks of a deer in the rain-softened sand, the child-like raccoon tracks as well.

It is a day of quiet for me. I have no need to go to town, no one is coming here that I know of. The boys and I had a good day yesterday although it rained on and off. Gibson and I sat on the porch swing and rocked gently, watching the rain fall down. He focused on it intently and we were quiet until he wanted to sing the Eensy Weensy Spider (or do you call it the Itsy Bitsy Spider?) and we did and he was so happy. He cheers when the spider climbs up the spout again. All above us and around us were the banana spiders as we sang. It was sort of a perfect moment in time.
Boppa came home and then all the boys wanted his him. I fed them all pizza for supper and Boppa took them home to their mama and I cleaned up and that was another day, slipped through like a dream.

All of it seems like a dream, lately. These long, summer days of cicada buzz and afternoon thunder storms. The birdsong and dappled shade. The tomatoes and watermelons, the heat, the lazing cat, the napping dogs, the slow rotation of summer's flowers- the passion flower, the clitoria, the brown-eyed susans, the morning glory, the crepe myrtle which is having a spectacular year.
Soon the hurricane lilies will be pushing up, the confederate rose will begin to bud and open.

Jessie texted me this morning that she saw a bumper sticker that reminded her of me. It said, "If indoor plumbing doesn't make you happy, I don't know what will."

Exactly.

I belong to a Facebook group called Old Florida and they posted a picture of a house today which is almost the exact twin of one I lived in back in the seventies. The house where I learned that if indoor plumbing doesn't make you happy, then I don't know what will because it had none.



We froze in that house and we sweltered. It rented for $75 a year.
That is not a typo.

I have indoor plumbing now. And air conditioning and heating. And I am grateful. But I tell you what- I did not hate living in that house. There was a pump out back and I got strong, pumping our water. There was a beauty to it that taught me a lot about life and how simple it can be and how I can learn to make do. When the corn fields around us died from lack of rain the summer we lived there I learned to appreciate rain and the cool miraculous relief and sustenance of it.

I talk about setting the bar too low when it comes to what makes me happy, content. But honestly, I think that if more of us had lived in conditions that much of the world lives in, it would be a good thing. We would all be satisfied with less. We would all appreciate what we have so much more.

It has certainly worked that way for me.

Good morning.

Love...Ms. Moon




12 comments:

  1. I love this post, especially the last bit. I admire how you can state these deeply moral things yet never sound pretentious or pedantic or moralistic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What wonderful names, confederate rose and hurricane lilies. Thanks for the book suggestion - I can't comment or enable comments right now so thought I'd leave a message here to thank you. Have a good weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think you are so wise and right. We really need very little to be happy. All our possessions cloud our perspective. But you slice right through that with this post. Thank you for the reminder.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Incy Wincy Spider, for us (yes, I am a transplanted Englishwoman). Today , oddly, I spent being thankful for rain, sun, water, and shelter in its simplest forms. We had an awful, beautiful, storm. I sat on the top of the mountain, with clear blue skies to the west, watching the storm clouds recede to the east; and was rewarded with the most incredible rainbow. So wide and vivid that it lit up the storm clouds, then became a double, and briefly, a triple. Such joy, such glory.

    It makes the ants rampaging through the kitchen seem not quite so awful, after all!

    Mrs F

    ReplyDelete
  5. Elizabeth- I think we get to a level of luxury that we don't even particularly see as luxury because we've always had it. And then we want more and more. I am guilty of it quite often. But I have strong roots in remembering what it is that I really need and that is not a whole lot. It surely is a whole lot less than I have.

    Jenny Woolf- I think you would like that book. I hope you have a great weekend, too!

    Angella- I remind myself frequently that I am spoiled rotten in every way. I don't take that for granted.

    Mrs. F- Thank you for coming by and for commenting! What a beautiful image you speak of! How wonderful! And yes, I have ants too. They keep us grounded, to say the least, don't they?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dan was fond of asking questions like how many people in the world do you think get a hot shower every morning? How many people get to drink coffee this good? How many people have an IRA? A pension? Health insurance. Yup. How many?

    ReplyDelete
  7. The previous comment, I think was for the previous post. Anyhow. Helooo cat, chicken, flower, eggs. Hello Mrs. Moon.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Denise- Nope. This was the right one. Dan knew exactly what I was talking about. And hello back from all of us here in Lloyd tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I totally agree. all this plenty just makes people dissatisfied. deciding on being a working artist meant there was a whole lot of stuff I would never be able to have. I adopted the less is more philosophy and it has done me well. I daresay I am happier and more stress free than people with bigger incomes and more stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I agree with you about how most of the problems that people I know have are first world problems with no idea of what it's like to live in poverty. Heck, I have not ever lived in poverty, but I have seen it. I remember my first trek through Appalachia in college. I saw so much poverty. But I must admit that I have had a cushy life.

    I like that little house BTW. It is definitely a neat place.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.