I am sitting in, perhaps, the most beautiful writing space I’ve experienced outside of television. It is a simple and calm space. I am looking into a small outdoor area wrapped in a bamboo fence that encases a zen garden. The simplicity and small details give it beauty–as opposed to my own space, which is overrun with books, and swords, and light sabers and so on. Less here is more. This led me to thinking about my partner’s philosophy and core values. Less is indeed more. The less you fill your time and heart with, the more energy and love you have to pour into the things which truly matter. Defining those things is always a matter of choice and perspective, but the idea, as I see it, remains to limit those things to what comes from the natural world. She is an old soul. She believes in having a small number of meaningful relationships and closing herself off form the noise and clutter of life. She is not, therefore, a city person. I mean, hell, we own a farm in the deep woods.
Thinking about this and thinking about this space and our recent travels and our upcoming travels continues to lead me through a self-reflection about what I want and need from this time I have left as a human being. I remain woefully short of real answers. I am able to see clearly through the next few years–get one more kid off to college, get the last established and locked in academically and athletically in high school. See two more graduate from college and start meaningful lives of their own. What she focuses on is what life is meant to become. I struggle with looking too far ahead.
From all this I gather that I need to work on rephrasing my thinking to be able to see the longer road and lock in on the simple things and devote more energy to that and less to noise. That would lead to a healthier relationship and thus a happier life. This is, after all, the way to peaceful living.
Some Thoughts:
- Tomorrow is a turnback day. I believe it best to turn back to the beginning of this present iteration. I don’t remember what I said or felt 180(1) days ago, but I am curious to discover what that was.