{"id":1174,"date":"2009-08-13T22:50:17","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T05:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/?p=1174"},"modified":"2009-08-14T10:35:20","modified_gmt":"2009-08-14T17:35:20","slug":"lessons-in-simplicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/2009\/08\/lessons-in-simplicity\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons in Simplicity"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s our first day home from vacation. I’ve spent all my time today doing laundry, answering e-mails and making decisions my vacation-paced brain is not ready to accomplish. While on my trip I wrote a few journal entries about things I had learned on a two week vacation at the beach and on the road (2500 miles). Tonight I think I’ll share one of these thoughts with you.<\/p>\n

One lesson from the trip was Simplicity. There is something to be said about keeping our belongings and distractions to a\u00a0 minimum. I spent a lot of time with Mark with waves and gulls as our only entertainment. I walked and ran up and down the beach with that boy until my feet were calloused from the sand. My thoughts didn’t stray to other things when I was with him; I was all his, and we let hundreds of waves lap at our feet and we sank into the sand as the water washed away.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0063\"<\/p>\n

Our beach house was equipped with only a few dishes. And how nice; it meant just a few dishes to wash. I decided that my house feels decadent after such a simple week. The closets full of sheets and blankets seem excessive; the multiple sets of towels: an indulgence that weighs me down and makes me more busy than I need to be.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0135\"<\/p>\n

So, tonight I am too tired to post more pictures, but I want it to be said that I want to be more like I was on the beach; accessible, unfettered by excess, not unnecessarily burdened with worries.<\/p>\n

My house is still a joy to me. We walked in and the familiar paintings and belongings are here and it feels good. But after a few weeks of living out of a suitcase, I find myself more aware of and impatient with all the THINGS I lift around the house all day. It’s kind of like I’m living a farcical tale about a person who spends her days shuffling objects from room to room and thinks that the organization and neatness of those objects will make her happy. I took a step away from that life and I’ve come back disenchanted with it.<\/p>\n

These thoughts are certainly not as profound as Anne Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea<\/a>, but I think they are worthy of some action… Like a good trip to the donations bin at the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s our first day home from vacation. I’ve spent all my time today doing laundry, answering e-mails and making decisions my vacation-paced brain is not ready to accomplish. While on my trip I wrote a few journal entries about things I had learned on a two week vacation at the beach and on the road … Continue reading Lessons in Simplicity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1174"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1181,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions\/1181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}