Maybe There is a Lesson for us....

Time and again I hear people talking about how difficult a time we are living in but that there is a silver lining of sorts to the hardships. Adults and children alike are being forced to find out that all the fancy stuff, does not make for happiness. With so many families cutting back on spending, there are fewer extra curricular activities, fewer nights out eating, fewer electronic gadgets being purchased and some are even having to sell what they have, but families are discovering the joy of the simple things like family time, playing a board game together, mom cooking a meal, discovering that the big house they just lost was really an albatross around their necks and there is new found freedom in the smaller affordable housing. Sure, I know that some folks are loosing everything and there is nothing pretty about that, except that maybe for the first time, they see that having one another to lean on, is a gift of untold wealth.
So many times we are simply buying more than we need, buying more than we can honestly afford, wanting something so badly that we have to try several credit cards to find the one that is not yet maxed out to buy a pair of pretty shoes or that dress that catches our eyes, does not give us more than a moments thrill. Soon it becomes "old hat" but the bill is still being paid on.
Even with food shopping, so many keep trying new fads in eating, replacing what is in the pantry over and over. Only to discover, keeping it simple works the best.
We bought new furniture not that long ago and it was a need and a want both. I love the new furniture, we made a good choice, it was on sale, comfortable and not expensive for what furniture costs these days. We paid for four pieces what you can pay for just one. But, still, I wanted to then make everything match. I wanted new end tables, new lamps etc. We certainly have the money for those things but still, we recognized they were wants and not needs. So purchasing a few small items and using what we had, we made it work. But here is the thing, in about a month, it all became "ho hum" it wasn't thrilling any longer and at times I deeply miss my old familiar things. Most of which my husband wisely has in storage for me, just in case. He knows me well.
The point is, maybe with all the recession stuff going on, maybe its time for us to look deeply at the things that are of true value, lasting value....family, time spent together, simple things like family meals and teaching our children that love is not measured by the size of the wallet or the amount of stuff they have. That working together as a family has more power than just about anything. Maybe this is our time to learn what past generations had a better grasp of, that the important things in life are most often, simple.
the new green of spring popping up in the garden

Let Us Go Back
~Thomas Curtis Clark~
Let us go back
To the simpler and better things.
Let us retrace our steps
From our greed-born bickerings
Back to the quietness
Of plain, good friendliness.
Let us go back
To the old roads of beauty's quest.
Let us again find joy
In the fields and the woods, possessed
By the thrill of the spring,
And of summer wandering.
Let us go back
To old-fashioned content, our wealth
Found in the garden nooks,
And beneath home roofs.
Let the health
Of the trees and the grass
Be ours, as the seasons pass.