© 2012 Mary Ann Romans
Leading the simple life is not only less expensive, but it can be more rewarding, too.
The last few days after Christmas have been wonderful. We’ve spent no money at all, but we have been having the best time. Days have been spent playing board games, cooking good meals, watching a gentle snowfall and the winter birds outside our windows, visiting neighbors, making a snowman, drinking hot chocolate, watching a Star Wars marathon, and just being together. It has been a perfect time after the busy Christmas rush. The simple life.
Today, we’ll go to church and maybe hike through a local estate, or maybe just drive around looking at all of the Christmas lights. We’ll probably take down the tree, smiling over the homemade ornaments made in years past, and argue, with good nature, about which boxes are for which ornaments.
I know it can’t last long, the simple life. The kids will eventually have to get out of their pajamas and go to school. My husband and I will have to gear up for work, and there is all of that laundry that is piling up (I, at least, insist on clean pajamas each day.)
If anything, though, the past few days have definitely taught me that we need to be more simple at home. That spending days away from the stores and the chaos is good for the soul, and that we don’t really need as much as we thought we did. Once we took the time to unplug from the pressure of more, we actually wound up with bounty, if that makes sense.
Becoming minimal and leading the simple life, even if it was only for a few days makes me hungry for more of it. I aim to take advantage of the feeling to make some changes at home. To get by with less and experience more.