Simple

I'm sitting down by the highway
Down by that highway side
Everybody's going somewhere
Riding just as fast as they can ride
I guess they've got a lot to do
Before they can rest assured
Their lives are justified
Pray to God for me baby

He can let me slide

 Simple is more of a state of mind.  Simple ain’t easy but it is more than just a desire to streamline or uncomplicate.  It is an effort to clear the mind and the schedule and to prioritize the real things we want to do and think and get rid of the clutter of modern times like; phones, schedules, deadlines commitments, relationships, what to leave in and what to leave out and where you have to be at noon.  It is also a liberation from the constant burden of self-entertainment, self-stimulation, travel and adventure seeking.  It is the desire and ability to recognize and focus on the people that are really important to us, family and friends, partners and lovers, cohorts and comrades, and to serve and satisfy those people the best we can. They say you should have 100 friends in your life but you can only really maintain 5-10 good friends at once.  Life is too short for fast food and bad friends.

We are loving it, my wife and me.  We have been retired for ten years so we have had some practice.  Waking up when we want or when it is warm, with no list or agenda, opening one eye at first light or at full sunrise on the meadow to gage the day for what it might become.  Then enjoying a leisurely breakfast with correspondence and conversation, avoiding any contact with the real world, for that is too depressing.  Self-disciplining to de-cafe coffee, juice, Zinc and an occasional breakfast chocolate, eggs only every other day and bacon only once a week, no TV or drinking until 5, but anything else goes, all day. 

After my morning douche and yoga practice on the east facing bedroom deck while howling with my dog Eva, I take my patient canine companion out for her morning frisbee session.  Then I look around and let the day come to me.  If it is cold, cloudy, or snowing, I’ll turn the heat up a notch or start a fire and hunker down in the house for a while, reading, writing, dabbling or fixing and improving stuff.  If it is sunny and warm, I will wander around the backyard or garage to see what calls out to me.  Sometimes I will trick myself with a small, pre-determined and easy  chore to get me started.  I usually quickly find several other things to do and start mutli-tasking until a natural priority develops and the less important or non-fun chores fall off until tomorrow or next week or never.

Today it was removing half a tree encroaching on the backyard stream, by hand.  My wife Tracey and I started yesterday with a hand saw on a two foot diameter branch.  We took turns sawing the day before, 100 strokes at a time each and then jagging-off in between, talking to friends in the field, laying in the hammock or playing with the dog.  By lunch we were exhausted and by dinner we were only halfway thru.  So today we continued with little headway in the moist dense core of the tree.  The spring buds were emerging so the juices were flowing.  We thought of quitting and letting it leaf out on the branches on the far end of the moment arm, or let it fill with heavy spring snow to bring that big bad branch down. 

But we got impatient so we threw a rope up and over the far end of the branch and Tracey and I yarded rhythmically on it, up and down, until it cracked and we ran screaming while it came down with a fantastic crash, exactly where we wanted it to fall.  Then we took the ax to the downfall, chopping up the big logs and trimming the small branches off and stacking them next to the fence to build a more natural branch fence.  It was exhausting so I took a nap and then went for a long ride on my bike.   Live deliberately.  Then go for a bike ride.

So I ride the back roads back to my house on the meadow where life is simple and easy, uncomplicated by our innate desire to stimulate, challenge and entertain ourselves.  A place where we can just be.  Where mobility is overrated and freedom, liberty and independence are a state of mind,  Where the pursuit of happiness is a game and contentment is a journey, not a destination.  Where my personal legacy of good intentions is hardly noticeable, a slight improvement in the world I found or easily mitigated.  As Thoreau would say 'Richness is measured in the amount of things we can afford to leave alone'.

Cause I've been up and down this highway
Far as my eyes can see
No matter how fast I run
I can never seem to get away from me
No matter where I am
I can't help feeling I'm just a day away
From where I want to be
Now I'm running home baby
Like a river to the sea

JB