Simpler

I sometimes long for a simpler life. My life as it is couldn't be any more blessed or full or fun. But it could be a lot simpler. My post a couple days ago about the beach was remembering those days. We were so happy when we were at the cabin - and we had NO electricity, cell phones, DVDs, etc. We played cards every evening, sang around the campfire. The big 'treat' was turning on an AM radio in the evenings and picking up stations from all over the US - Texas, etc. Always amazed that we could 'get' a signal at night from so far away - and could NEVER get that same station the next morning or anytime during the day. Every night, we would search and 'hunt' on the dial for a station playing the Top 40 - so I could hear John Denver. NOW, anything my kids want to 'hear', they buy for 99 cents on iTunes. But in the 'good old days', I tuned in nightly from thousands of miles away in another country to hear my 'tunes'. Once a day.

I fantasize a lot about 'what if'. What if we cashed in everything we own, sold our personal property, took our retirement savings and the equity in our home and moved to say, Mexico, or anywhere in a foreign country with a 'beach'? We could quite probably live a comfortable life for the rest of our lives. Never 'work' again - at least not in the context of working like we do now. Maybe teach at a school - or build houses with Habitat for Humanity. We would live in a far smaller home, maybe not even one we own. We'd have less 'stuff'. A selection of bathing suits, beach cover ups, flip flops, lots of good hats and sun screen. Books, board games, couple decks of cards and our poker set. Chess set. I'd take every book we own, buy a bunch more before we moved and read them over and over and over.

Dream of possibly no more 8-5 Monday through Friday, drudging through the weeks. To get to a weekend that is so jam packed, it doesn't feel like a weekend. That's how I feel lately - we have no time for anything but 'survival'. We get up early, go to work, come home, trudge through evenings full of kids 'needs' and activities, get through 'til Friday, do mountains of laundry, a bit of housekeeping, gardening, church, eat out one night - and then it's Sunday evening, watching 60 Minutes and the sad realization that we are starting another week. Just like the last week. Fraught with dangers and commitments and 'stuff' that often times doesn't seem all that important.

If it were just J. and me, I honestly think we would pack our bags and head for some remote place to live out the rest of our lives. Our luxuries would be few - high speed Internet, a good computer (or two) and golf clubs. Maybe a DVD player so we could get movies and shows from NetFlix or Blockbuster via the mail to give us something to watch. I'd go to the 'market' everyday and buy whatever we felt like eating that day. I'd cook more. I think I could be happy with a lot 'less' - fewer material possessions, smaller home. I could 'live' without a lot of things that I have now - thought the computers and Internet are sort of important to us - and at least I can rationalize the need for them 'cuz we have to handle our finances somehow and the Internet makes that do-able from wherever we happen to be. Life would be simpler. I'd learn a new language or two. Walk on the beach a lot. Swim everyday. Dive in to knitting, cross stitch, quilting. Nap everyday. Plant a garden and grow food. So many things I can imagine doing.

But it isn't just the two of us (yet). We still have two young men to educate and get out on their own. If When we win the lottery, I won't hesitate to move wherever the spirit takes us, and include a first rate teacher for the kids and they can be 'home schooled' anywhere we decide to stay.

For now, we stay put and keep trudging along. Saving for the future, plowing through our jobs. I hope to stop plowing someday. It's exhausting and stressful and some days, frankly, not a lot of fun. But it pays the bills. So we stay. For now. But nothing lasts forever - and I don't see us doing 'this' life for the rest of our lives. Maybe we will - this is a fine life and retiring here and traveling sounds fun, too. But if not working sooner would be possible if we were to drastically simplify our existence, that's a tempting thing for me. I just have to convince J. As long as there's a reasonably priced golf course in the vicinity of wherever we were to 'land', I think I can persuade him. And I'll either learn to play myself, be his caddy or just drive the golf cart and look forward to something cold from the drink cart while enjoying the beauty. Golf courses ARE really pretty.