Simple Pleasures

Do you remember the day when we could go out on our porch and the only thing we had to do was visit with our best friend and neighbor while we watched our children play?? And it would be for hours and hours of laughing and gossiping, sharing ideas and dreams, griping about the world's problems and how we would solve them all, enjoying the summer sun warm on our faces as our children made up dances and games on the front lawn.
Those were my days in Pocatello Idaho. I was neighbors with Lisa Frost who was an inactive member of the church. Lisa smoked, drank beer and made me laugh. We raised our kids together for the 13 years we lived there. We talked church, we talked marriage, we talked kids and we talked and talked until you would think we had nothing else to talk about, but would do it all over again the very next day. Our summers were spent out on her front porch or on the porch swing. The kids would go between houses, in and out and from dusk until dawn. The winters were long, but you could still see the tracks in the snow from one front door to the other back porch. There was not much that could keep our children apart nor ruin my friendship with Lisa.
I think of her today because it was her birthday a few days ago. We have kept in touch over the years at Christmastime and special occasions, but for someone who was such a major part of my life day in and day out for 13 years, I don't understand how I let our friendship become a yearly letter. Why do we do that with people who are so significant? How do we 'just move on' with life when we could barely make our own decisions without that person for 13 years?
Life was soooo easy back then. Seriously, our biggest worries were whether or not our kids would want to eat at their own home or at Lisa's...or who's night it was to barbeque - or which movie matinee we wanted to see? We found so much pleasure in not doing anything but letting our kids play and enjoy life.
I want to go back to when simple things were enough...when we knew how to 'do without what we didn't need' instead of 'needing what we didn't have.' Too much has changed - simple kindnesses, simple thoughts, simple pleasures and simple life. Everything has become too complicated because suddenly, it's not enough in this 'not so simple world' we live in.
But I can make a small change. I can make things 'simple' again for me and my family, starting with our schedules.
Prioritize...needs and obligations come first, but even those will be weeded through to sift out the true needs from the 'I should have never said yes to that' obligation. Of course, our family commitments are first - FHE, scripture reading, prayer and relationship development (vacation and activities). And then church comes next - callings, Sunday meetings, temple attendance and an occasional assignment... After those two priorities, it get's a little tricky. Our value system in life has changed to where employment has to come next, especially in order to really be able to do anything else of worth..ie, education, physical health and life long security.
Everything else, I've decided, has to be gradually weened from our lives. We are too busy to enjoy the simplist of pleasures - taking time to call a friend, picking our child up from school to take out to lunch, taking a walk in the cool evenings with our husbands or trying out a new recipe.
So, it's going to be a time of 'stopping to smell the roses' week for me, starting next Monday. I'm wanting to recognize the things that used to make me smile or sigh...when was the last time I sighed from contentment and not frustration???
Next week, I'll be able to give you that answer. So stay tuned.