My Confession

Am listening to Josh Groban and the song of that title came on and I thought, "great title for my post". My confession is that although we live rather a simple life, it is 100% choice and has nothing to do with our income. It may have started out somewhere in between choice and limits set by one income and 4 children ! It has become our lifestyle. We still choose to live in a way that we can feel is ethical for us, no holier-than-thou attitude here. Don't take it that way. We all live to our own conscience. And its not the same for all of us. I am speaking only about how Emery and I personally view things.

As the children finished college and got married our expenses went down, our income increased too but regardless we find ourselves living much the same way as we always have which allows us to help our adult children , not in a spoiling way but in a way that just gives them a bit of a head start. Life is a struggle when you are just starting out and its nice to be able to help them where we can. I could go out and buy just about anything I wanted, but I don't want much and Emery is the same way. We could hire a gardener, a maid if we wanted to but we value the blessing of physical labor and to be truthful we are very independent folk.

We could go out an buy a bigger, newer house, but this is home. This is all we need and want.

Love fills each room of this house. Memories are cherished in this home. The children can come here and feel its home, not just mom and dads place. They can still hear the same creaking floors and hear the back door slam as they go out to see the goats. It is the old homestead !

We have been years and years without debt. I mean totally out of debt. No house payment, no car payment, that sort of out of debt. So our bills are just the utilities and we keep them pretty low. It's something we worked for, had as a goal way back in our early years. Emery said when he was in his 30's that he was going to have a house paid for by the time he was 52 and he certainly reached that goal.

My confession is that I am not living this way because of financial constraints and somehow have just have learned to make do. My confession is that I love this simple life. I love the fact that our lifestyle has always been a choice, a choice to be a one income family and a choice to be aware of the environment and the need to teach our children that "work is love made visible".

One more thing, I write knowing I am heading out to the store to do some clothes shopping. In need of some personal improvement clothes...the kind that makes you feel pretty : ) There is balance in living spherically (very big grin)

The Mystic River that runs through Medford, Massachusetts, the town I grew up in. Paul Revere stopped on his Midnight Ride, across the street from the buildings on the left side of the picture on that important night on April 18th, 1775. Picture was taken 2 years ago when I was home on a visit.