This.
We look out our cabin windows and see this – blue evening shadows, the yellow splash of a low-slung sun, and this little guy, making tracks past the big cottonwood to that hay tossed out in delicious heaps there in the horse pasture.
We race from one window to the next to watch him as he goes.
And I laugh at us, because, really? We see deer all the time. They live here. Right here. Seldom do we look out and not see at least one. So what is it that’s got our noses glued to the cold, cold glass? It’s the appreciation of watching the wild. And it never wears off.
I suppose you could say it’s the gracious dollop on top of this dish of the simple life.
There seems to be something in so many of us – a gentle impression, a tugging, a drawing toward a lifestyle that is different from what we’ve been living. A simple life. A tuning in to a way that’s holds a deeper meaning and a deeper purpose than what the jam-packed, fast-paced, and frantic may have held. In a tentative extension of graciousness to our deepest selves, we see something never seen before, and find a respect for what lies there. In short, we’ve come face-to-face with that glorious thing called awakening.
It’s easy in these early times, to become a mix of longing and desperation. To want this new life so badly, to see it as holding so much, yet to not be able to realize it and live it right now in its entirety – that can make for quite the emotional melt down. And cross those arms and stomp those feet because, obviously, this fresh, meaningful kind of life? It’s not in the cards for you (yes, I actually said those very salt-stained words once).
But thankfully, despite all that seems to stand in your way, you’ve already begun. Yes, you already possess the most valuable thing that will help you get from here to there. It’s the roadmap called desire.
I’ve been reading a book lately that’s all about that roadmap and the wonderful guide that it is.
In her new memoir, Tsh Oxenreider, founder of The Art of Simple, practically offers help for those of us who want to get from the frantic to the simple, from the work-fast to the work-fun, from meaningless to meaningful, from here to there.
In telling her family’s story, she helps us understand that it’s the many small choices in food, work, education, travel, and entertainment, made with purpose, that bring the simple, intentional life into being.
Would you like to read it? Notes From a Blue Bike has officially launched just this week and can be found in retail outlets everywhere. And? I get to give away three copies of it here! (Remember to include a current email address; drawing ends Monday, February 10, at 3:00 am, MST).
Just leave a comment below sharing what the one thing is that you can do, right now, that would take you one step further down the path toward simplicity and intentional living. Remember, we may not be able to do what we want, but it’s entirely possible to do what we can.
Wishing you the loveliest of weekends, friends!
Update: We have three winners! Joan, Julie, and Bernadette, I'll be emailing you shortly!! Congratulations, ladies!
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