A simple life

Daffodils at our new house

When I think about it, my background dream is always to have a simple life.  I sometimes ignore my inner guidance and clutter myself up with too much, but for the most part I am winning.  Moving out of the city to a less populated area and living in the country (but five minutes from civilisation) is part of it.  Decluttering and streamlining is part of it too.

The sun rising on another glorious Hawke's Bay day - from our sitting room

Another aspect of my dream simple life is to have time to be and to have a loosely structured day.  When we sold our business at the end of last year and suddenly did not have a seven days a week business to run, I realized that I had been getting somewhere by a certain time since I was five years old - for forty-one years!  First school, then work, then our business.  Apart from school holidays as a child and a three-week trip in 2001, I have never had extended time off.

Shall we sit outdoors and have a tea?

It takes time to get into a structure though.  At first you think you'll just magically fall into a wonderful daily routine and get all those things done that you always wanted to but never had time.  That did not happen.  As I have heard other people say and as you may have experienced yourself - tasks expand to fill the available time.  That's why giving yourself an artificial deadline can be so useful.  Then you can use the rest of the time to do something fun.

See those two lemon trees past the daffodils?  There is ALWAYS a lemon on the driveway having rolled down the hill

It seems silly to have to be intentional about hobbies and have them written into your diary, but it's true, otherwise you'll constantly put them aside because there is a more important job to do.  That's how it works out for me anyway.

I love our clothesline - covered in case of rain showers but always sunny; it catches the breeze nicely too

What other things have I found belong in my simple life?

Feeling abundant by not having too much around me.  I feel the most broke when I'm surrounded by too much stuff.  To me it feels 'rich' to have a home that is sparse, organized, simplified and calming to the eye.

Also, 'still time' to write in a journal and let my mind wander.  I haven't really journaled much, well not on any regular basis, and I've been enjoying a new habit of going to our bedroom between dinner and bedtime to play spa music softly and sit up on our bed with a pillow behind my back surrounded by my journal(s), current book, Kindle, notepad and tap into my creativity and quiet mind.  When I write in my journal I'll ask myself a question, then list down all the answers that flow from me.  This is one of my favourite times of the day; I sleep well after doing this too.

My husband hard at work mowing our huge lawn.  From start to finish it took him two hours...

When I take the time to find out what makes me happy and do more of that, it helps me happily do my everyday errands; so it's actually the opposite of selfish.  I'm sure I am a nicer person to live with also.

It doesn't need to be something like reading or sewing either.  Washing my makeup brushes and tidying up my petite collection of makeup seems frivolous, but the next day when I put my makeup on it's a joy.  Everything seems new even though I've not been shopping.  Taking care of what I already own is such a gratifying pleasure.

And chopping wood for our fire

I like to keep my wardrobe simple too, but perhaps we'll talk about that in another post.  Tell me about your simple life - what keeps you feeling calm, content and at peace?  Make a cup of tea and tell me all about it in the comments.  Won't you share?  Soothe me with your shimmering vision :)

Fiona

PS.  If you didn't know, I write books about living a simple, beautiful and successful life - you can see them here.  You can read on Kindle or in paperback.  If you are an ebook reader and shop elsewhere than Amazon, please let me know.  There is iBooks, Kobo and so many other brands.  I have been wondering if I need to list my books in other places so I'd be really grateful if you could help me out with this.

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