Point of View II
There is so much more I’ve thought of on this topic since the first entry was written about who is really richer, one with a lot, or one with little.
So here are my additional thoughts:
Henry David Thoreau, the famous transcendentalist, lived in a cabin in the woods. He called his land Walden Pond, and he wrote about this beautiful time in the woods with exquisite detail. This is the one thing I remember from his book that I read thirty years ago:
Walking in the woods, he came across a remarkable stone. Very beautiful. He carried it into his cabin and found a ledge or window sill where he could put it and look at it and admire its beauty.
In a few weeks’ time, however, he noticed that the beautiful stone was collecting dust. He wasn’t going to put his time and attention on dusting when there were so many walks to take on Walden Pond. And so, he took the stone, and threw it outside. And so Thoreau is known for his simplicity.
I have a story to tell you about a time I spent in the woods.
Before Heavenletters, I sometimes kinda had to get away from it all. For a couple of summers, I rented a cabin in the woods for a week or two. I had no TV. I had books, and I had Sunshine and Ginger, my two precious dog friends to keep me company.
Here’s what I stocked the kitchen with:
One cast iron frying pan that doubled as a baking sheet.
One pot that also doubled as a mixing bowl.
One fork, knife, and teaspoon, and one wooden spoon to stir with.
And I had simple basic foods with me.
I knew what I had, and I knew where everything was. I didn’t have to hunt through cupboards. Dishes never piled up. The counters were always clear.
I won’t tell you how many pots and pans and foodstuffs I have crammed into my kitchen now, and I won’t take pictures of my counters and post them here either!
There was one more thing I noticed about my time in the woods.
At home, I just had to have flowers in my house. I was unhappy if I didn’t have flowers. At home, I would even go to the railroad tracks and pick brown-eyed Susans and put them in vases and jars and fill almost every room with them.
In the cabin in the woods, however, surrounded by wild flowers, I had no need nor desire to pick flowers. All I had to do was go outside my door or look out the window, and see a feast of flowers and growing things, and, so, my flower craving was satisfied.
Just a little more to tell you:
My father came from Russia and talked of the Russian winters. His family lived on a farm. To heat the house there was some kind of brick fireplace that served as a stove, and they brought the cows and sheep into the house for the warmth they provided for the winter. And my father and his brothers slept on top of the brick stove in the winter to keep warm.
Now, here I was, his daughter, a teenager in America, and I wanted to buy a sweater for looks!
You have to understand my father was generous, and he never denied me anything I wanted.
When I asked for some money to buy a sweater, he spontaneously blurted out: “But you already have a sweater!�
In his life, sweaters were for warmth. He listened to me about how I had to have a certain sweater that would go with a certain skirt etc. Graciously, he gave me the money for the sweater that I couldn’t live without. I do not remember this sweater, of course, what color it was or what style it was or what there was about it that I had to have. But I do remember my father’s simplicity.
These entries could have been called The Simplicity of Having Less.
Here’s what I will end with:
Decluttering has become a big business. Closets are too full. We have too much stuff. I understand Oprah just had a show about decluttering.
Isn’t it obvious, that when one lives a simple life, there is no clutter to deal with in the first place?
Godwriting is a blog by Gloria Wendroff and is about Gloria's daily life as the Godwriter of the Heavenletters project that is having a profound effect on the lives of people around the world.
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