Posted in Simple and Frugal Living

There is a world out there that beckons.  A world that tricks you into thinking that you are not good enough as you are.  A world that plays on your emotions.  A world that will assure you that if you buy this product and that product, your life will be so much more simple. 

This has brought me to more than a few rants.  I still cook from scratch.  I still hang laundry on the line.  I still sew clothes.  But I am by no means a pioneer woman.  I have a TV, CD player, pda, and a computer.  Our home is equipped with central vac.  We both drive vehicles with a dvd player (oddly I marvelled one day that the littletons will never remember a vehicle without a tv in it!).  I do have some use and knowledge of modern technology.  Yet I still talk about living simply as our fore fathers did. 

Then my always engaging 15 yo made a point.  A point I cannot deny.  Pioneers were not pioneers because they chose that life of simplicity.  They were cutting edge at the time.  Hmmm....He has a point.  Even the revered Little House books discuss modernization and there zest for the ease of work it afforded.  Ma talks about a new stove.  If only she could have one, she would be able to cook in half the time.  Go back further, Noah used the most modern tools and methods of the time to build the ark.  Glass windows were not always around.  (Did you know that Egyptians aorund 100 A.D. made a type of window, though rough and unclear, that would allow light into an otherwise dark room?)It was not until the Gothic period that windows (primarily stained glass) were used in buildings.  However, most homes did not contain glass windows.  So when the pioneers had the ability to access and use window panes, did they not because it wasn't simple?  Flash forward to the Depression, everyone wanted a radio and a car/truck.  While we look back and think that sitting in front of the radio with the family is simplistic, to them it was like sitting around the TV watching a movie in the DVD player.  I hadn't thought of it from that perspective. 

Forest Gump is over quoted, "Simple is as simple does."  This is true.  Simplicity comes from inside.  It isn't what you have, or don't have, but what you do with it.  If having every modern convenience is your goal and it helps you to continue on God's path for you, GREAT!  If living with some modern technology and embracing some methods of the past are the chosen path, GREAT!  If living a complete self sufficient life engulfing the entire lifestyle of days gone by are the path, GREAT!  It really isn't about how we accomplish simplicity.  Simplicity isn't about the use of (or lack of use of) the modern, it is about keeping your life in such a way that allows you to keep your eyes on the Lord.  Simple is as simple does.

These are my thoughts.