Thursday, June 02, 2011

Recognizing What I Need At This Stage of Life

Uh-oh. I have M.O.

Media Overload.

Gah. I've been walking around the house and yard like a zombie, feeling as though every task is too much, too hard. Mumbling to myself, "Must. Get. Out. Of. Here. Must. Get. Off. This. Complicated. Farm."

Well, duh!  I've been too driven about finding a house in a whole other state. Yesterday, by day's end, I felt as though I'd been dragged miles around to houses in Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and North Carolina. My eyes were so bleary that every house began looking the same.

Good grief.

Every task has felt too hard. Like too much. Well, except for the boxing-up of things I no longer want. I am loving that--mostly I just want to chuck it all away! Start over in a little house with a tiny yard and live as my grandparents wisely did. They were in their 50's when they moved to California from Nebraska  and they brought barely a thing. Just what they needed and a few pictures to hang on the wall.

That's it.  And they were happy, happy people. Extremely contented, too.

So there's my new goal--to live as my grandparents did. Simply. True to the Debra which God created, not the overloaded one I've made lately. And without clutter which can somehow jump from a shelf into your head (I am finding).

Sigh.

So I'll be taking a media break for a few days. I'll probably be here in my blog about the same amount of time (hanging out here is pleasant), but oh, I need to stay far away from all the other stuff that 'so easily besets me' (as the Bible would say). All the wild house searches and the message boards and state profiles and news articles and people arguing about nothing.

I need calm. Quiet. Silence. Sunshine. I need to live as my grandparents did. I know that now. That is my clear direction and lately, it's true progress that I even recognize that. (Trust me.) And if M.O. helped awaken me to that, well, I'm grateful.



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You must know yourself in order to know what you need to keep your sanity. And you must ask for help in keeping it--ask God, your spouse, your friends, anyone who will listen and help you find what you need to be wholly healthy.


"... you have not because you ask not." ... James 4:2


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I'm glad a lot of you enjoyed the garage house. Thanks for letting me know! I'm thinking I enjoy the simplicity of it--having just one bedroom again reminds me of our apartment in 2008 and how happy Tom and I were there, like two newlyweds who were free to roam and not tied down to a bunch of stuff. Happy sigh.

6 comments:

Sara said...

More than once I have been accused of burying my head in the sand when I am doing as you are doing now, laying aside what so easily besets me. Wisdom is what it is. As someone who has forever longed of living on a farm and now lives in suburbia (in the house, in fact, of my grandparents!) I assure you that your heart can be full of all of the best in life living in the middle of a neighborhood. I've been working away in my back yard for three days and I'm not done...whatever would I do with that 20 acre farm? Well, I'd be willing to give it a go but I'm nothing less than joyful right here in Dearborn!

Always Learning said...

I would love you to write a post on how exactly your grandparents lived...with more details!

Unknown said...

Yeah take a break and clear your mind. It always helps me.

Anonymous said...

My grandparents always lived very simple and basic and we are wanting to get to that place as well. As we age, STUFF just means a lot more work!! The hard part for me is deciding what to keep or not...sigh!

Have fun on the break...and will be interested to learn how it all goes in this move. As it happens.

Blessings, Elizabeth in NC

Anonymous said...

Both sides of our Grandparents lived very simply. I never once heard any of them complain about wanting anything either. Contentment... totally. Always the same furnishings and pictures etc but lots of love and peace every time you were with them in their little homes. The only thing I wonder is are you going to miss a little room of your own to be able to curl up and read or listen to your old tv shows in?...your women's cave. :) A place to pretty up your own way. You have always talked about enjoying a place like that. He will not always be in his man cave. In our house with hubby home 24/7 now we bump into each other all the time. I would love to have even a closet of my own to sit in once in a while and read a book alone! :) When hubby has the tv on and in our little house you can hear it all over. Hard to read or listen to any music with the tv blarring and no place to be alone. LOL Just a thought. Sarah

Debra said...

Thanks, Everyone, for sharing your stories! I do love reading them. Lori--I'll try to include a couple links to posts about my grandparents soon and maybe write a new one, also. They were my favorite people!

Sarah--oh yes, definitely I'll make sure I have my own space in our next house. I do need my own space! (You know me well...heh...) And actually all Tom seems to need lately is a tv, a recliner and a computer so if those were in his man cave, he *would* be out there all the time. ha! :)

If our downstairs bedroom was larger here I'd have a space for myself in there (since Naomi's currently living in my space upstairs), so that's something we're considering, too--a larger master bedroom (won't be hard to find--ours is tiny!). But really, we'll need a second bedroom for guests and that will most likely be my getaway room in our next house.

Thanks again, Everyone....Debra