Yesterday I did something that I never do - I got comfortable in our Twin Oaks hammock and read my book. It was delicious. I had no idea that swaying gently in the bough of the netted hammock would be so calming, so comfortable. It isn't that I don't take time to relax, I do. I am often found standing in the kitchen reading, sitting in a camp chair on the porch or propped up with pillows in my spot on the bed. The hammock though was new and the reason I ventured out there is because something a friend said at our book club, "your home is like living in a park."
She is right.
We live on 13 acres and the several surrounding our home are mowed and taken care of by my Good Man. He labors on our lawn - not a typical lawn, it is a diverse species meadow - mowing it ever shorter by the house. In that space there are two picnic areas, our garden, a campfire circle, the chicken coop, and the hammock. And looking at it again after her comment I realized she was so right, I do live in a park.
And if I live in a park I should enjoy it. I should stop fussing with the ever in need of improvement house and go play in the park.
Luxurious.
We have very little, by choice. We have taken the "live simply" motto and applied it with vigor, but we have the enviable fortune to live in our own park - and that is wealth beyond measure.
The key is to remember and to enjoy it. Not to look at the constant flaws, the needs that just can't be met, or the lack that is often apparent. If the perspective of abundance can be held then it is glorious to live in a setting only dreamed of by so many.
Things don't look so desperate when you are swinging in the shade of two enormous oaks in the curve of comfort of a hand crafted hammock.