Tag Archives: simplicity

Remember

November 15, 2018ache, home, Poetry, this college lifefog, loneliness, memories, mountains, nature, Poetry, simplicity, snowinsearchofabrook

I live in a world where vehicles crowd

Each other in unending race;

Streetlights outshine the stars at night

And smog smothers the young moon’s face;

The air is heavy with the scent of fumes

Even at night the din rarely dies;

Yet I find my way in this rush of life

Where myriads of sound from the city rise.

And sometimes they ask me, do you remember

The elms in the winter night?

The falling of snowflakes in the muffled dusk

And the way they dance in the light?

Or the way the mountains look in the rain

When cat-footed and gray comes the mist,

And one by one the lights blink on

Solitary beacons, alone, fog-kissed.

No, I have not forgotten, and the memory

Comes quick and gold and keen,

And I know when wind shakes the elms with snow

For I feel a stirring, a glad unseen;

And when the mist comes creeping up the mountainside

And the lights gleam on, a pain,

A beautiful pain, chokes, and I can forget

Only as the wind can forget the rain.

October 3 (for Creative Writing class)

featured photo credit: pixabay.com

When Queens Ride By

August 7, 2018Christian living, home, this college lifebeauty, life, simplicity, When Queens Ride By, writinginsearchofabrook

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Growing up on a farm, I was a very independent young lady and would ignite into something similar to a volcanic eruption if told that I was not able to do something that a male could. I cringed away from the idea of a woman being a wallflower, something beautiful and helpless, something to be taken care of, and petted.

While I still rise to the challenge if told I am incapable of doing something, my outlook on life as a woman has changed since I was a 15 year-old harum scarum.

The question for me now is not “Am I capable of doing this?” but rather “Is it the best option for me to do this?”

It is rare that I can point to a certain time, event, book, or person and say, “That changed my life.” Most changes have occurred slowly, like water wearing away on a rock. There are, however, several times when I can look at a certain point in time and say, “That book, or that person, or that event changed my life.” Or was a trigger for that change.

One story that was such a trigger for change was the story, “When Queens Ride By.” It chronicles the life of a couple struggling to make ends meet in their Midwestern farm. The wife sacrifices all her time in an effort to make ends meet on the farm. Life becomes a drudgery until she meets a “queen” riding by.

I am not sure how old I was when I first read this story, but it woke up a sleeping something inside of me and challenged my way of thinking. After rereading it while I was home this summer, I was again challenged. I have always been a bit of a “do as many things as possible” kind of person, trying to help here, trying to help there. While I love and appreciate beauty, it usually is not my first instinct to make my environment look beautiful or tend to details pertaining to the quality of life if there are pressing things to do, for example, as the story says, bring in the tomatoes. My first instinct would be to go without combing my hair to save time, skip breakfast or eat it on the run to save time, not bother buying a mixer if I can do it by hand and save money, etc. While my motto still is to live as simply as possible, there are times when spending a bit of time or money on the finer things of life can be an investment.

What kind of investment? An investment toward the quality of our emotional well-being. According to the University of Minnesota, living in a clean, beautiful environment can “influence your mood… impact your behavior and motivation… facilitate or discourage interactions… create or reduce stress” (Halcon).

This story challenged me, and while I still have a long way to go, it brought me to the realization of what the power of beauty and the power of a woman’s support can do. Even as a single, it made me rethink the way I live life, and the way my life affects those around me.

Read it. Savor the excellent writing style. Listen to what it speaks to you.

Here is the link:

When Queens Ride By

photo credit: pixabay

Source: https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/enhance-your-wellbeing/environment/your-personal-environment/how-does-your-personal-environment-impa

Glimpses

May 23, 2017life on the foreign fieldbeauty, Chiang Mai, children, homesick, joy, laughter, simplicity, Wisdom Tree Homeinsearchofabrook

Sometimes I have those moments of lying awake in bed at night and wishing I could take the next plane home, get out of the city, spend time with my family, visit my favorite haunts again, listen to the laughter of old friends, and tear down the road in a madcap gallop on a sorrel horse.

I do have those moments. In no small measure. But on the other hand, I also have moments of pure joy as I experience life in Southeast Asia.

It helps to count those moments. To look at pictures of them and savor the beauty and the joy. And the laughter. I face a thousand decisions a day and one of the decisions that come up the most is whether to laugh or to cry. Or lose my patience. And when I do make the right decision to laugh, it’s always a relief. Like the time I walked into the bathrooms after naptime and caught three of my three year old male students sleepily peeing into the toilet all at the same time. Sadly, the funniest moments are usually the most difficult to snap a picture of because they come at unpredictable moments.

Below are several snapshots of what life has been like in the last month. Beauty, laughter, and just plain cuteness.

This is what life looks like for me most of the time. Minus the green and yellow. We only wear these uniforms Wednesdays and smile with relief when the day is past. This photo was taken at Wisdom Tree Home during the exercise part of the day. The rest of the day is spent teaching, playing, eating, napping, and prepping for more teaching. In my room alone, we have 20 students, age 3.

This is Peem, one of my more solemn students. And sleepiest.

We get lots of giggles, as shown in the picture above.

Sometimes its really hard to wake up from naps, even when our blanket gets pulled out from underneath us.

We do art projects, we just simply look cute with our curls, we find worms and we fall asleep at the table. A lot.

Sometimes this happens!

Going to the market on Monday night is bound to bring me some sort of joy, whether its talking to the vendors, seeing people I know, or a tasty bite of fried chicken strips.