The Best Things in Life are Simple...

Do you ever think what it would be like to have a time machine and go back about a hundred or a couple of hundred years to experience how our ancestors lived?  Or about what a time traveler from the distant past would think of our world today if they suddenly found themselves in the year 2011?  


We are living with and depending on things...machines... they would have found unimaginable, much less possible, a hundred years ago.  Heck, we are living in a world I couldn't have imagined just 20 years ago!  


I can't remember the last time I actually picked up the phone to call a friend to make plans.  Several years ago we started emailing instead of calling and now instead of emailing we facebook or text.  And many times we seem to be perfectly content to allow our relationships to go on existing solely in the virtual world.  


Yes, it's convenient to be able to pop in and out of facebook, check to see what everyone is up to, take a quick look at pictures from their recent family vacation, give them the ol' thumbs up and then go on about our business which consists of pressing buttons, nuking food, and catching up on our favorite shows that our good friend, the DVR, was so nice to record for us while kicked back on our comfy sofa with a blanket because our good friend, the AC, is keeping our house a nice cool 73 degrees although it's a humid 93 outside.  


It seems that in the process of simplifying our lives, making them easier, we have somehow lost simple altogether.  


We are spoiled.  


And while I'm not saying that I want to or am about to give up my air conditioned car for a donkey or my washer and dryer for a washboard and a line, or certainly not my blackberry, laptop,  microwave, central vacuum, and dishwasher to go live off the land in a cabin in the faraway woods, I do sometimes miss or long for a simpler time.  


When I think of the moments throughout my life in which I have felt the most joy, happiness, and contentment, I don't see or hear any of my high efficiency appliances working for me while I'm kicked back watching Netflix on my laptop...


I see smiles on faces I have known and loved...


I hear katydids at dusk and smell fresh cut grass and the sweet honeysuckle that grew at the edge of the woods behind my childhood home and the laughter of my very best friend as we ran and twirled and caught lightning bugs and put them in a mayonnaise jar with holes we'd poked in the lid so they could breathe...


I smell my freshly bathed boys when they were babies, hear their sweet voices when they spoke their first words and see their chubby little legs and gap-toothed grins as they took their first steps... 


I hear ocean waves crashing against the shore and smell the salty air and feel my toes in the sand and the warm sun on my face...


I feel the warmth and strength of the arms who have held, hugged and loved me...


I see the loving, trusting brown eyes and the excited, wagging tails and elated "welcome home" barks of all the dogs in my life, past and present...


and feel the silky softness of their fur beneath my hands and against my face...


I remember the surprised joy of going to the mailbox and finding an unexpected card or letter from a friend or family member with precious words written by their very own hands... 


I hear the scratchy sound of a 45 playing on the record player and my little girl voice, along with my sister's or my friend's, as we belted out the words to Rod Stewart's You're In My Heart or Elton John's Crocodile Rock into our hairbrush or bedpost finial microphones...


I smell wild onions and remember pretending to bake a pie out of them on the back patio and feel the wind on my face and in my hair as I rode my big yellow bike down the big hill behind my house...


I taste the many homecooked meals and desserts prepared for me with loving hands and see and hear the happy faces and voices coming together around the dinner table...


I feel laughter so deep it hurts my belly and leaves streaks of tears on my cheeks...


I recall the sights, tastes, sounds, smells and feelings of little everyday things that make life worth living and I know that no matter how big this world gets or how much easier our lives are made by technology, it will forever and always be these simple things our souls crave the most, even when we are absolutely convinced it's going to be that new iPhone or trip to the wonderful world of Disney that will satisfy us most...


So go ahead and respond to that text, send that tweet out, and press that button but don't forget to pause, appreciate, and thank God for all those priceless little moments and simple little things that can never be bought yet somehow never fail to make your whole heart smile.

Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are.  When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.  ~Lao Tzu

This post was written for Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, Prompt 1.) The Simple Things...