Defining the Simple Life

I see a lot of bloggers who are blogging about simplicity. Everywhere people seem to be on a quest to simplify their lives and homes. I've never given a lot of thought to simplicity. Living a simple life seems second nature to me. But then the simple life is all relative. What one calls simplicity the other one may call extravagance. In light of some conversations on the boards I have decided to define for my readers what I view as simplistic living.

Living the simple life to many means switching from plastic toys to wooden toys, cooking and eating at home, recycling everything, getting rid of the TV, making quilts out of old hankies, switching to granola as a breakfast cereal, switching from synthetics to cottons, etc.

When I speak of living the simple life none of these things come to mind. To me the simple life simply implies that we take time for family and that "we owe no man anything". In a more abstract term the simple life can be defined as a life lived in peace and contentment. We all achieve that peace in a different way.

You say you want simplicity so now you are going to cook from scratch. The first thing you do is run to the bulk produce store and buy beans and rice. How does this equate to simple living? Instead of achieving simplicity you will find that you have set yourself and your family up for boredom and complaining. Nobody wants to live on beans and rice. What's wrong with setting on a simple meal of grilled chicken salad and herbed pasta? Pasta can be bought in bulk and most children prefer pasta in all its varied forms than rice. Chicken can be bought very cheaply when you buy them as whole chickens.

And what good are wooden toys and recycled hanky quilts if the children that sleep under those quilts and play with those toys are exposed to strife in the home; mama and daddy quarreling, mama so stressed she's yelling at the kids while she boils her beans and cooks her rice? Daddy is so tired when he gets home that he has no time or patience to play with that wooden train his son brings him. What has simple living done for your home?

So you sew your own clothes. You've thrown out all the things you don't need. You've sorted and washed, and strained and cooked, and worked until you can go no more. You're hands are raw from washing the baby's cloth diapers on a scrub board. The homemade granola turned out soft and sticky. The wooden toys are thrown hither and yon all over the house. Half of them are buried under piles of laundry that you have no time to wash because you are determined to live the simple life and wash them by hand. You've made all your window cleaners from vinegar but there hasn't been time to wash the windows. At night you lie in your bed and wonder why the simple life is not all you thought it would be. You wonder where you've gone wrong.


Could it be you need to redefine simplicity? Simplicity should be something that is experienced and lived daily in our lives and in our homes. Simplicity should not be hard work. Reading stories to our kids, going on nature walks, delighting in the sunrise, watching the stars through the telescope on the back deck, meals by candlelight in winter and under the apple trees in the summer; these are the things that bring simplicity to life. Slow down. That doesn't mean that you grow lazy. That means that you cut out all the things in your life that are busy work and really have no value.

Instead of replacing all of your things with wood or recyclable material just organize what you have. Where did this idea come from that simplicity is brought about by the materials we use in our homes? I have no idea. But almost every one I talk to where simplicity is the goal I see a lifting of the nose as the person says, "I've switched to all baking soda and vinegar for our deodorants and cleaners, or, "We've switched to wood heat." While across the street another lady is telling her friend about how they have decided to simplify and so they have switched from wood heat to natural gas to save the ozone layer."

Ladies, this is not what it's about. Simplicity comes in living a gentle life, Simplicity is found in sweetness of spirit. Simplicity is a soft word to your children and a hug for your husband.
Simplicity is a clean house, an organized home, clean and folded clothes in the drawers, wholesome lunches for our kids, meals on the table at night, swept floors, and rosy, powdered babies. Simplicity is fluffy towels and soft comforters. Simplicity is found in the lavender sachet in the linen closet. Simplicity is found in warm socks and soft bedroom slippers. Simplicity can be heard in lullabys and songs that teach character. Simplicity is all about the way you live your life and has nothing to do with what you have or dont have.

Simplicity is contentment. It means that we don't need to have what we cant afford. It means that we enjoy every day and bask in Gods great love for us. It means we walk daily with an awareness of God and what he designed for our families and our homes. Simplicity is found when you take time to count the petals of a clover with your three year old. Simplicity is found lingering at the dinner table with your coffee cups or at the child's table in his room where you help him make that Lego crane he's been working so hard to design.

The simple life is a life of contentment. It's catching frogs in the cornfield. It's frosting cookies together. The simple life is reading poetry over the teacups with your children. The simple life is found in family worship. It's the dimmed light at your sons bedside when you kneel with him in prayer at the end of his busy little day. It's the long talks with your teen child as she sprawls on her bed sharing the injustices of her day.

The simple life is found in simple thing. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

The aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden
because of their simplicity and familiarity.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein