A Powerful Memory

Sometimes we just don't remember all the things in our life that actually played a very important role in where we are now. Today, I remembered something, something filed deep in the gray matter, forgotten for years. After Melanie, Mei-Ling and I took our walk we came home so Mei-Ling could enjoy peace and quiet for her bottle time. She now likes to hold her own bottle, such a big girl ! When she was done eating we took a little trip to the local Christian book store. Its less than a mile from our house. While there, Melanie was looking at lots of things to use in teaching Mei-Ling about God, things we used when our children were small. As she looked around, I found a little book that flooded me with memories. This little paper bound book was nearly memorized by me in my youth and early years of our marriage. Country Living, was maybe more instrumental in our choice of lifestyle than any other thing, yet I had put it out of my mind completely and gave all the credit of our choice to live simply and in the country to Mother Earth News, and books I had read like Little House etc, and yes I will admit they had influenced me but not like this little forgotten booklet, Country Living. I bought a copy today and was leafing through it while listening to a CD I purchased today too, another item filled with profound memories. Music seems to take us back to places and times like nothing else.
I read in this little book the following paragraph and smiled at its wisdom..."There is not one family in a hundred who will be improved physically, mentally, or spiritually, by residing in the city. Faith, hope, love, happiness, can far better be gained in retired places, where there are fields and hills and trees. Take your children away from the sights and sounds of the city, away from the rattle and din of streetcars and teams, and their minds will become more healthy. It will be found easier to bring home to their hearts the truth of the Word of God.-- Manuscript 76, 1905. " We may not have streetcars and teams rumbling down our city streets any more but certainly they have been traded in for even more noisy cars and trucks.

So today I give credit to a long forgotten book that played a major part in where we are today, in the country, having raised our family with the fields, the trees and far away from the sights and sounds of the city. It paid off !

Mother Earth News and the books I read, like We Took to the Woods, just sealed the deal for me in setting my mind on living simply. Oh I suppose Thoreau had a part in it too as did John Muir.