Stress and Worry Do Not Make for Simple Living

I think quite a bit about "simple living" or as some call it, "living simply" and the one thing I know for sure is that no matter where you live, no matter if you have home made soap at your sink or a clothesline and no clothes dryer, if you cook from scratch or by frozen TV dinners, if your life is filled with worry and you are stressing out over every little detail to life, then there will never be simplicity. You can make all your own clothes, wash every dish by hand, you can wear an apron, milk goats, gather eggs and sweep your floors but if you are always worried about something, there will never be that calm joy that is sought after by living simply. That peacefulness that draws folks to the simple life, that makes them want to slow down, doesn't come from growing your own food, or heating with wood, it comes from your heart. Part of it comes too from the relationships we have with our nearest and dearest. No matter how simple you live, if you are at odds with your children or your spouse, the stresses from that will eat at your peace and your joy. That doesn't mean you throw in the towel, it means you pray for things to get better and you take steps to make love grow bigger and deeper. No matter how simple the externals are in your life, its the internal, the emotional connections that foster peace of mind. For me, my walk with God is first and foremost to the quality of my simple life. Sure, I question every aspect of God. I want to get it right. A bit like when Emery and I first met, we had so many questions for one another, interest, not interrogation, but we wanted to know everything about one another...build a deep and abiding friendship that would last through any storm. I want to know all there can be known about God, so I can understand what He wants from me. I know one thing for sure, He wants us to love Him and love one another, and when we are at odds with loved ones, there is no peace in our hearts. Sometimes we can't fix a relationship, and to that, we don't stress out over it, if we have done all we can, yet there is not a workable relationship. Some folk are toxic, plain and simple, but we can still have love in our hearts for these folk, just not have them over for dinner !

Living simply, maybe is more about having a simple heart. People are always looking to the Amish as examples of simple living at its best. No cars, no phones, no keeping up with fashion trends, no electricity etc, but those are not the things that make their lives different, its the care they give to their family life, their desire to not hold grudges and their desire to walk as close to God as they can.