There is at least a little pioneer in me.  My grandparents were farmers on the hills of England, my dad helped to tend the farm for many years of his life.  My mother is an avid gardener and can grow just about anything.  I come from two people who love to work the land, who love to care for nature, who see the possibilities in the earth around them.

I often find it hard to keep up with the world around me.  I seek out renewal and refreshment in playing with my sons, cooking a delicious meal from scratch, reading a good book, or being in the great outdoors.  The simple things.

At the moment I’m writing this I sit in our tent-trailer, parked at a Family Camp in Northern Ontario.  The wind is so strong I may be lifted off the ground as I put my pencil to paper, the clouds are moving fast across the sky, and the trees are laughing as they dance a jig on the the air rushing ever so quickly through their leaves.   The simple things.

These are things that money can’t buy, things God bestows on His children, in abundance, on a daily basis.  Love, family, friends, laughter, conversation, nature, words.  The simple things.

Such a delicate balance exists between just enough and too much.  I clean the clutter from my house at least 2 times a year – a complete overhaul.  I restore balance for a short while until the clutter starts to creep in again.  There is this longing in me sometimes for more, newer, cleaner, faster or easier things in life.  But I’ve come to learn that it’s the simple things that bring me peace and balance.  And when I forget this truth, as I know I will, it’s a wonderful feeling to rest in the simple things when I finally remember to look for them.  Feels like home.  The simple things.