I am a Simple Woman

I am a simple woman. I wear clear lip-gloss and flats 99% of the time and yes, own a pair of white Keds.  I own 25 blank journals and love new pencils and super sweetened iced tea on a hot day.  I love peace and quite and have solid colored everything, very few printed anything.  I could spend the day watching my children splash in the ocean, holding my husband’s hand and never be bored.  I love the smell of country roads and farmland in the summer and enjoy reading all hours of the day and am loved by my family. My soul is simple and want only to be a facilitator of good will and that warm fuzzy feeling and feel joy when I am appreciated.   I have a few very good friends, and know that I can ask them for anything as can they ask of me. I want to be what God intended me to be and pray I am on that path.  I have one glass pitcher, three spatulas and eat string cheese and apples for a snack.  I drive the speed limit, wear clear nail polish and say my prayers faithfully everyday. I have hopes and dreams of being a writer one day and seeing my first book on a store shelf.  I can feel that day to be real in my heart as I type it.  I love cats, being on a lake in a boat and plain cheese pizza.  I am not a fancy girl, but love all things clean and simple in life. White sheets are my favorite and having the windows open on a spring day makes my heart spin.  I love my family in the ways only a simple woman can. Deeply. Honestly. Simply.  I am a simple woman.

Great Grandma Josie

My Great Grandmother, Annie Maria Josephine Ecklund Anderson, or Grandma Josie to us, never sent a text in her life. She was born in 1892 and didn’t watch American Idol, or check her e-mail three times a day.  Nor did she Skype her family thousands of miles away, and I am most certain she never did a Google search for an apple pie recipe. What would she think of our lives and our lifestyles of speed and instantaneously satisfying our every need right then and there?  Would she think all of this was good?

I have to admit; I have sent a text, watched AI (as it’s called by its followers), checked my e-mail four times during a day, Skyped my family and friends, and most certainly have searched Google for an apple pie recipe.  Does this make my life less meaningful? Does all this technology disconnect me, at some deeper level, from family and friends?  That’s a tough question.  There are days I would say I am extremely bothered by all of the texting, emailing, etc., and then there are days that I’m so grateful for having access to it.

In the perfect world, I think combining the eras would be ideal, at least for me.  I would love to have regular meals with my neighbors and friends and catch up on the weeks’ events because that’s just what you do.  I know I would enjoy cleaning out the barn on a Saturday together as a family and then having homemade ice cream that we all took turns cranking, then coming inside to Skype with family about their busy day and actually see their smiling faces.  We could then e-mail pictures of the new kitten we found alongside the road to family after a day of fishing in the creek (a mile away - that we walked to). 

I think it’s the extremes that we question. Some make us want to be completely unplugged and others make us feel grateful for advancement in the world of all things techy.  Like many of you, I don’t like hearing a phone ring while I’m out to dinner with family, and often feel disconnected from people when they are carrying on a conversation with you while checking their e-mails on their phones.  And, I am truly happy to buy my milk at the store rather than milking the cows in the barn for hours to get it.  I also enjoy being able to drive somewhere in my car and it take ten minutes instead of planning every trip to town then having to harness the horse to the wagon when it’s snowing and eight below.

It all comes down to how you use technology and to what extreme. We all know this, but don’t always stay ever-present in that fact. I’m guilty of going overboard on a given day with my computer, but do try to take a step away and do things with family that doesn’t require a charger or the car adaptor.  I do.  We do.  We can’t lose sight of the times when life was very simple; drinking sweetened iced tea with neighbors when it’s hot out and playing cards together instead of watching TV or sending that all important e-mail before we kiss each other good night.  I don’t want to ever hear my children tell their children a story about the time their mom got a funny e-mail.  “It was a Saturday, when my mom got a long e-mail from one of her friends…”.  Never.  Ever.