Tag Archives: Simplicity

Morning Musings

Jaspenelle
by Jaspenelle
Sun
22
Aug
2010
8:21am
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Morning Sky
Michael and Damian were still sound asleep when Ivy and I woke up this morning (they still are!) and now Ivy has fallen asleep against me on the couch. I love this quiet morning. Rain keep passing through, there is thunder in the distance but the showers here now are gentle.

A big change may or may not come into my life in a few months. It is still up in the air but it still makes me plan. I’m a Capricorn, I am really good at turning an idea over and over in my mind for months. Autumn is always my big idea season, many of which are followed through in Winter stretching into Spring. Spring ideas are almost completely garden driven though. Summer is my season for being in the moment. I have little patience for longterm plans when the warm sunshine beckons.

I have a lot of ideas floating through my mind lately, Autumn is in the air. Ideas for the Autumn Equinox, Samhain, even Yule. Some of them are coalescing into plans. Autumn Equinox is already in the works, half done in the gift department. Ivy’s knit hat is done, Damian’s is on the needles. Warmth of winter, a simple gift I hope will be well received. Maybe I will have time to make one for myself (Michael does not like hats but I’ve something else planned for him.) The Greenbluff Apple Festival is less then a month away, I must begin to organize for that. (So is Cirque de Soleil come to think of it, Michael got tickets!) After that onto Samhain, we keep that simple too especially with Halloween’s trick or treating on the same day… Costumes! I’m still thinking Ivy as bear and Damian as lion. Then onto Ivy’s first birthday, big but simple ideas in the work for that, nothing solid yet. Same for Yule, just ideas, though I do know what my sabbat gifts will be already.

Right now though, Lughnasadh has passed and harvest time is most definitely upon us. My dehydrator has been running quite a bit lately, soon it will be filled with apples. I am thinking about harvesting the Italian plums from the neighbors tree to make prunes but the ravens keep getting them just as they ripen. Oh well, they need to eat too (and it keeps them away from my peas!) The freezer is filling up, green beans and broccoli lately. Simple whole foods to feed us in the Winter. Later today I will be hand pollinating sugar pie pumpkins and popcorn (I do not think the bees are finding their way down to the pumpkin flowers into Damian’s dense three sisters garden. The Autumn garden is coming along, shell and snap peas, spinach, radishes and carrots. Simple but delicious. In a few weeks we will going out to a little farm we loved to pick winter squash for pantry storage. Butternut and acorn. I love watching Damian book it across and open field, I adore simple joy of watching my children. Simple can be beautiful.

Damian just came into the room and Ivy is stirring. Time to wrap up this very wandering post. Have a wonderful day.

Just in case…

Jaspenelle
by Jaspenelle
Wed
4
Aug
2010
2:49pm
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214/365: {red week} Ivy
… you had forgotten how cute she is, even with dirt smeared all over her face.

In fact, I think my children might be even a little cuter when mixed with soil, but then again, I am a gardener. I am trying the rainbow project again this month for my photo a day calender. This is to be a red week. I can always use some of the energy and passion that red has to offer. With any luck another red tomato will be ripe by week’s end.

I’ve been pretty busy catching up on all the things that were ignored in the days before the wedding. Ironing, cleaning, getting back to the basement project, Autumn Equinox gift knitting, gardening… I am also revamping the way I plan our meals to trim down that budget a bit. Whole foods and frugal, I know it is possible.

Remember my word of the year? Simplify? Still working on that too one little bit at a time. Beyond the basement, you goal for the month is to halve the plastic be use. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Simplicity

Jaspenelle
by Jaspenelle
Fri
2
Apr
2010
2:41pm
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90/365: Spring Storms
It is truly a blustery day, black clouds, wind, rain, hail and snow. Spring in Spokane. If it wasn’t for days like this though, I’d never get housework done.

I often hum while I work around the house. Recently I have noticed Damian is beginning to hum too. Children truly do copy everything right back at you, in the most adorable ways. This morning I decided to looked up one of the most common songs I hum to see if I knew all the words (which I was teaching to Damian was we were cleaning the kitchen.) The words really resonate with me which is why I think it is one of the most common things that I hum as I work.

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we won’t be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Have you heard it? The melody is on wikipedia (if you can read music at least.) I have no idea what-so-ever where I learned it, I feel I have always known the song. I was a little more then surprised to find it to be a real song and that I knew all the words correctly after all these years. It is a Shaker song written by Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848. I also learned it is not the only Shaker thing I have in my life, I have a quote on the front pages of my home notebook “Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you were to die tomorrow.” which was also said by a Shaker.

I love the song (and quote) because they are echoes of my own desire to live simply. Granted I have no desire to live as simply as a Shaker (nor do many apparently as there are less the 10 of them left) but I do think there is something to be learned from them. Every act from offering praise to God to peeling potatoes is a sacred act to them. If everything we made or bought was done with the thought that it should last, and all our actions made with respect to future generations, I think the world could be even more lovely. I know that this is a message that can transcends religion too, because here I am, a Pagan homemaker, washing dishes with my son and humming a Shaker song.