Small and Simple

 

The hubby and I leave for Colorado in a couple of weeks, for the summer season. The cabin there that we always referred to as "small" will seem like a rambling mansion.  It has been a couple of weeks since we walked away forever from our comfy and pleasant Texas house. It was sold and we moved into a brand new travel trailer.  To say that this has been a big change would be drastically understating the endeavor.

We are settled in to a pleasant campground, with nice folks around, tall trees and generous spaces for parking your portable "home" and vehicles. Always the optimist, my belief in the ease of transition might have been a bit over enthusiastic. Not to mention my guess-timation of the amount of stuff  that trailer dwellers can stow away and still have room to live...actually room to breathe.  From re-learning how to walk sideways nearly everywhere you move to the spending hours looking for things that you did tuck away (not always in the most logical place), the change from house living to small and simple is a huge one. I admit, I've had some very doubtful days...what the hell have I done?!

Amazingly, it's getting better, we're feeling more at home. After all, life is so much about our patterns and routines. No matter where you are, you begin to form new routines. Logical or not, you get familiar with where things are. You get things arranged like it works for you.  As we are getting our final utility bills paid, the ones we'll not have to pay anymore...as we sit in our lawn chairs and watch the campground staff mowing the grass...as we remember maintenance and upkeep that will no longer be our job, we're beginning to enjoy the idea of this simpler life style. 

The truth is, for most of us, our lives of today are basically big and complicated. The giving up of some of that isn't the easiest surrender.  It can however, be extremely rewarding and freeing.  I'm already spotting things that I thought I just had to keep, hold on to and asking myself, "why in the heck did I think I needed that?"  More things will go to the Goodwill, before we store the trailer for the summer. The clutter and excess of our lives is slowly shrinking and we are feeling lighter and excited to be paring down. With our comforts and basics, life may not be totally simple but it is definitely smaller.  More to come, JO

Where Are Your Manners?

Do you find this figure in the photo to be attractive?  Perhaps you do, because we've been brainwashed into thinking that ultra thin is in.  I find the images of skeletal like celebrities and models, walking around, smiling and preening with a thin layer of skin stretched over their bones to be frightening.  What used to be photos of famine and illness are now famous people pictures.

Here's the truth, folks.  I understand that rich and successful people have money for nutritionists and trainers and all the tools to make themselves fit and attractive. I'm pretty gullible sometimes, but I don't for one second believe that all of these new emaciated persons dieted and exercised to these extreme forms.  Just like the super athletes, it will someday be exposed what kind of drugs they've used to reach negative mass. Most likely, not super but souped up.

If this distorted and sick example of perfection is not damaging enough to our children and our society, the shaming of those that still look like humans has become the acceptable behavior. In the last few weeks the crude and vicious remarks made about Kelly Clarkson, the beautiful and very talented singer have been highly reported. The most recent quote came from a news commentator that I respected.  It just burns my cookies...you know those cookies that I'm stuffing in my mouth and is obviously why my ribs haven't been visible to the naked eye for years.  Is that the reason that I'm not
slim and trim? Neither you or anyone else know my personal problems or struggles.  Does a public figure, who knows full well that everything they say will be repeated, will be heard by millions literally, have the right to comment about the appearance of another public figure?  Where are the manners, where is the respect, where is the tolerance?

Those things seem to be absent from our society today. Oh, we strut around, all puffed up about our tolerance and compassion.  We are tolerant of the deadbeat entitled...they can't help it, their education was poor, their great-great-great grandparents suffered great injustice, there's no high paying jobs in America.  We are tolerant of the crazy and evil...they can't help it, they had a bad childhood.  While we're so busy being understanding and empathetic of the huge crappiness in our world, we've become critical and arrogant concerning the everyday shortcomings of our fellow human beings. 

Moma said, "Don't worry, honey. When people say hateful things, they are just jealous of you." Well, I don't know about jealous. I do know there is just is no excuse for unwarranted and unkind criticism of people you don't even know. Some of the media personalities, the celebrities, the commentators have talked so much for so long that they have lost the ability to shut off their mouths. I don't care who you are, anyone that thinks the ugly remarks directed at M. Clarkson are acceptable, is so full of themselves that their eyeballs are bulging out. Who are THEY to criticize? Every single one of these commenters have the equal ability to shut their mouths and staunch the nasty flow from it.   I'm an intolerant person myself these days. I'm sickened and disappointed with persons that have no manners, no accountability and responsibility for their words or actions.

Change...Absence and the Heart

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say.  I've certainly been absent lately.  Have you missed me?  I've missed being here, talking and musing with you.

First there was our plan. An idea that we knew would bring big changes in the lives of the hubby and I. We also knew it would be a huge undertaking...selling our house in our hometown, downsizing. We would keep our Colorado cabin and a travel trailer here at home, using it much like an apartment when in Texas.  We cussed and discussed and decided that would be our grand plan.  It seemed far away and we began to gnaw away, just a nibble at a time.

Then, BOOM! The For Sale sign went up on Friday afternoon, by Saturday afternoon, we had two offers.  Suddenly, we were flaying and floundering, paddling as fast as two old folks can against the storm of change that seemed to engulf us.  It has been three weeks of chaos.  Contracts and negotiating, packing and selling stuff, inspections, appraisals and more negotiating.  The work and the stress seemed to never have an end. 

Hard decisions had to be made. Even when the mind is set, the stubborn heart isn't always in agreement.  "Aw-w, what about this ? I can't get rid of grandma's old do-dah...can I?"  The mind says, look, old girl, you made this decision. Stuff has got to go.  The heart makes a painful cracking noise and the tears flow.  Of course, butt tired exhaustion doesn't help with the choices.

Well, it's been three weeks and we still have our heads above the water and the flow is a bit calmer. I just packed away a small framed saying, Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. It applies.  The three daughters came, chose everything they wanted. That was good. Instead of them going through our years of accumulation because they had lost one or both of their parents, we had the joy of giving them things because of a positive event.  There was a huge sale and in spite of showers, the shoppers came like buzzards on a dead cow and picked us clean. 

So, now we sit, our voices echoing in the emptiness, in a living room with a sofa and a coffee table that belongs actually to the new buyer. We have our mattresses on the floor and we have two plates in the cabinet and the basics to survive for the next ten days.  A new travel trailer awaits to be picked up on the day after the closing,  the things we couldn't let go of and will go to the cabin huddle in storage.  We're still not able to lay on our backs and float and won't be for a long while yet, but not paddling near as frantically.  Change is rarely easy for humans, particularly aging ones. However, I truly believe that change is good for the mind, the body and the heart.  It forces a person into new territory and stimulates the imagination as to what is unknown, unseen and around the next bend. You just have to keep paddling. We'll see you around the curve of life's river. JO

Sizing Down

In the middle of this cold and dreary winter season, the hubby and I are up to our necks in some pretty big changes.  In a  couple of weeks we will have our house, here in our hometown, on the market for sale.  We're not giving up home roots by any means.  Just as we've done for the last nearly ten years, we will continue to share our time between our Texas hometown and our summer cabin in Colorado. We simply are not going to maintain a house here. Once the house is sold, we'll store a travel trailer here and use it like an apartment when we are at home.

It seems like an understatement to say that this project involves sizing down...this project involves major downsizing.  It's a bit like the old saying, "How do you eat an elephant?"  Just one small bite at a time. We've been consistently chewing away lately.  One thing that we've become convinced of is that this is a very good thing. Even if some unforeseen event stopped this ambitious plan in it's tracks, we are moving a long way towards simplifying our life.  Today, our lives are extremely cluttered and complicated. We have lots of stuff. That stuff often gets packed away, pushed back, to make room for new stuff. 

Here are some tips about downsizing that I've come to realize:

        *Our hearts tell us that some things must be held on to.  You know..."Oh-h, that's grandma's favorite bowl. Everytime I look at it, I remember ???" When's the last time you looked at it? What good is it doing in the top of cabinet collecting dust?  Either, get rid of one of your bowls and USE the keepsake or give it to the kids. Surprise, you say, they don't want it. Then, keep a thing or two in a place where you can see and enjoy it or sell it.  Give the kids the money. I promise they won't turn that down.

        *Start going through your accumulation, a bit at a time, now. Don't wait until something forces you to get rid of things or leave the children burdened with the disposal of your things.  They will sell it for a 25 cents in a garage sale or give it to the Goodwill.  Pare down your things while you have time to do what you want with it. 

        *Be ruthless and be organized.  When you tackle a closet or under the bed or a storage cabinet, have several boxes or plastic storage totes available.  If it's no longer good to you, you don't want it, put it in the "sale" box and put a price on it...what would you sell it for in a sale? When it's time for that sale, it will be a lot easier.  Make hard choices.  Try to keep the true keepsakes to pack away at a minimum.  Decide if you can display or use other things that you've just saved.  Example, my mother-in-law's silverplate ware has lived, in it's case, under many a cabinet for years.  I actually like the set. Supposedly, it's not good to put silverware in the dishwasher. Well, in a travel trailer, no dishwasher. I'm going to use it, suddenly feel excited about having it. The same for some other collected and inherited dishware...I'm going to use it. 

        *Label every box and storage box, so you know what you have.

You would be amazed at how good it feels to get rid of things that just lurk and never really get used. You really don't have to have several of everything, just the useful amount and your favorite.  Get busy, you will feel better and smaller.