At Home in Wyoming

Less Is More

 

This is the old bank in the little western town of Meeteetse, Wyoming.

I am constantly reading decorating books, mostly French (I have no idea why...Wyoming is about as far away in culture as you can get from France...but there you have it) and I am told that one of the first lessons in decorating a home is that less...is more.

I think that is true also of our lives.  I tend to junk mine up with big time wasters simply because I am too fragmented and/or lazy to look at the details of my life and figure them out.

But Proverbs 27:23 says that we are to "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds." 

In other words, pay attention to the details of your everyday life.  Take the time to think things through.  Keeping it simple means cutting out the things that aren't working.  The clutter.

For example, I have been a member of a credit union for over 20 years.  I liked it...but they moved earlier this year to a bank building that is difficult to get to in the tourist traffic.  It is oddly situated in a place where it is easy to get killed because there is no turning lane, and it is at the top of the hill. 

There is a credit union that is a lot closer to my home.  It is smaller, it is cozier.  It is safer!

For some reason it never occurred to me to switch credit unions until this week.  The credit union that worked for over 20 years had changed in a way that caused me stress, but I never thought to change it, because I had always banked there.

I think that keeping it simple means paying attention to the way that you do little things, and if it is not working...hit that delete button!

Because sometimes less...is really a whole lot more.

 

 

 

Simple Ain't Simple

 
It is hard enough picking out tunes on the jukebox without this elk audience of two...I always wonder if they approved of my choice!  This jukebox sits in the corner of the Elk Horn Bar and Grill in Meeteetse, Wyoming...

I had a family member tell me this week that he discovered that his life runs better when he keeps it simple.

There is one thing I know about keeping life simple, and that is that simple...isn't simple to pull off.

In other words, folks...simple ain't easy.

But it is the most important thing, because it forces you to live deliberately, instead of just floating along, being so overwhelmed that at the end of your life you find that time ran out.

You found that you liked to take walks, but never found time to do it.  You liked to read, but were too busy to fit it in.  You wanted more time with family, but by the time you got done working, fighting traffic, cleaning the house, paying the bills...well, it just didn't happen.

Whoops!  There went another life.  Was it yours?

So this week on the blog I want to think hard about keeping things simple.

Stay tuned...

The Valley Of The Pain

 
This was taken on the Lower South Fork yesterday...you can see the green of spring slowly ebbing to the Fall brown.  I remember a few years ago seeing a couple of grizzly bears right in this field where the cows were yesterday.  I was going to a pot luck supper at the end of this road, and was concerned about my casserole staying warm.  I was NOT thinking that I was going to run into grizzly bears...but I did!

Today I read a quote by Jacqueline Kennedy, of all people.  You know, the wife of President Kennedy who was assassinated as he sat by her side in a car.  How do you process someone that you love getting their brains blown out, right beside you?  How do you deal with something like that? 

Years after the assassination, she said:

 

"I have been through a lot and I have suffered a great deal.  But I have had lots of happy moments, as well.  Every moment one lives is different from the other.  The good, the bad, the hardship, the joy, the tragedy, love and happiness are all interwoven into one single, indescribable whole that is called life.  You cannot separate the good from the bad.  And perhaps there is no need to do so, either."

 

Sometimes when we go through things, I think we have a tendency to dismiss times of pain as lost years.  We want to skip over them when we look back on the biography of our lives.

But think about it, wasn't the time spent in the valleys of life so much more enlightening than those on the mountain tops?  The greatest lessons in life are often learned by surviving times of intense pain.

One thing I know about pain.  Pain drives me straight into the arms of God.  I am closer to God during painful times than at any other time.  Perhaps because I need Him more. 

I have come to the end of my own resources.

Which is where He wanted me all along.  Why can't I get that through my thick head?!

I don't think you can really say that you have lived life fully without going through dark times, because just in the same way a thirst is quenched better after intense thirst, so is joy appreciated so much more after a painful interlude.

We tend to all want to run from pain.  But maybe looking at it as a part of a full life, we can walk through it looking for what we can learn from the experience. 

There is not much hope of escaping it anyway.

And oh how sweetly grateful and thankful are we for the happy times, because we have been through the valley of the pain.

And found He was with us, all along.

Who Me? Getting Older?

I have a self imposed rule...I can't get out the Fall dishes until I spy some of the leaves around my yard begin to turn yellow.  I believe the branch above qualifies, and with glee today I unboxed my leaf plates and pumpkin coffee cups...I know, I know, it is early, but then I get to drink my morning coffee tomorrow out of a cup that looks like a pumpkin!

I have been noticing lately that when I get out of bed in the morning, my joints are a little stiff.  They loosen up pretty quick after that, but still it is a reminder that I ain't as young as I used to be!

  Being middle aged has its limitations (bifocals!) but it also has its bonuses.  I was thinking today that one of the greatest gifts of middle age is that you no longer expect everything in your life to be perfect, or even good all the time.  You begin to understand that you will go through trials and tribulations, and times of joy and excitement.  Times of strife, and times of peace and quiet.  You find that the only thing that doesn't change is Jesus.  When you cling to Him you get through the bad times, and He enhances the good times.  Life gets better as Christ becomes your anchor when the sea gets rocky, or smooth.  As Paul said,

"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."  (Philippians 4:11).

Paul found contentment in Christ.

I have also noticed another gift of aging, and that is that the little things  become big blessings.  When you are young you expect so much...big things, big news.  It is an exciting time of life.  But when you get older, the smallest things are so exciting.  I could name at least 5 things that were exciting to me today...in fact, I think that I will!  There is a tiny baby rabbit that has been living in my bushes around my front yard.  I see him when I go in and out the gate, and he is comfortable enough with me now not to dart off when he sees me.  I picked two tomatoes off of my tomato plant, and smelled them.  I love the smell of just picked tomatoes.  I spied a mother deer and three baby fawns crossing the road at the end of my block...marching right down the center of the road like they owned the place!  I got out my Fall dishes and put them on the shelf.  I tried a new recipe at lunch, and got to use my own homegrown zuchinni.  My husband actually liked it! 

You see, none of those things are big things, just everyday little blessings.  When I was younger I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to them.  But get a bit of age on you, and you will find that you start paying attention to the small stuff. 

So tomorrow, my joints will be stiff when I get out of bed.  I will have to wear bifocals to make my pot of coffee, BUT I will get to drink it out of a pumpkin cup.  Now, that's excitement!  DLB

 

A Word of Advice

View from the front of the church parking lot...this is on the Northfork out of Cody.  A few weeks ago we saw 12 head of elk grazing out there, but nothing but deer since.

If you are anything like me, have you noticed that the faults of those around you seem to often stand out, shading their many good qualities?  Why is it that there can be a million and one good traits that a loved one has, but we tend to focus on what is wrong?  Why is it that their faults seem to get all of our attention?

Well, I was called up short on this by Thomas Jefferson, of all people...when I read something that he had written to his daughter.  Apparently she must have confided in him regarding the faults of a friend.  His advice follows:

"If the lady has anything difficult in her disposition, avoid what is rough, and attach her good qualities to you.  Consider what are otherwise as a bad stop in your harpsichord, and do not touch on it, but make yourself happy with the good ones...All we can do is to make the best of our friends, love and cherish what is good in them, and keep out of the way of what is bad; but no more think of rejecting them for it, than of throwing away a piece of music for a flat passage or two." -------Thomas Jefferson

Now that's sound advice!  And let's not forget that when we are focused on the faults of others, we certainly have faults of our own!  Maybe we should look at them the way we would like to be looked at ourselves...through the eyes of love!  DLB

 

 

 

 

 

Another Missed Opportunity for Joy

Since I had such a disappointing year for lilacs, I am reposting a picture of what a good lilac year looks like (2008) and the accompanying blog entry from that year...hopefully an oldie but a goodie, as I buy myself some time to finish planting my garden!

The Time of Lilacs...                                                                      

My lilac bushes are over 50 years old and as tall as the first story of my two story house.  If we don't have an early spring or a late frost, my bushes produce an abundance of blooms, scenting the air with lilac and affording me endless branches to fill every room in my house with color and fragrance!

I was blessed this year, I had a spectacular show of lilacs.  To top it off, it was over 80 degrees two weeks ago today, just as my lilacs were were at the height of their beauty and fragrance...and all I wanted to do was just sit on my front porch swing for the afternoon and breathe.  Read a little, swing a little, pray a little, and breathe. But alas for me, I had a porch to paint, laundry to do and floors to scrub.  But tomorrow, I promised myself, tomorrow I would steal away and take time to just enjoy God' s gift of a perfect lilac year. 

Well, tomorrow came and brought with it over a week's worth of rain and cold temperatures.  My lilacs were still there, I was able to fill vases for flower arrangements and dry some for Christmas potpourri, but that perfect 80 degree afternoon was gone, and when it comes again the lilacs will be but a memory.  Another missed opportunity for joy.

It was a year ago this month that my father-in-law Harry was told that he had two months to live.  The cancer that was slowly working its way through his body had entered his brain.  As he struggled to come to terms with his impending death, he told me that life is really short, and his time had just flown by so quickly.  Thankfully, Harry had come to terms with God years ago, and his salvation was assured through the sacrifice of Jesus.  As his time on earth came to a close, Harry wanted to indulge in all the things that brought him joy in life...time with family, having great grandchildren stay during Bible School week, revisiting favorite fishing holes, Aunt Carol's liver and onions, friends dropping off baskets of fresh garden produce and spending every second that he could on his front porch, watching his corn grow and enjoying the deer that walked past his house to get a drink of water from the canal.  Little things really, but at the end of life simple things take on an enormous importance.  Opportunities for joy.

I missed my lilac day.  I was too busy scrubbing floors that the dogs would track mud all over the following day.  Are you like that?  Are you one of those people that find joy in taking a walk, listening to birdsong, sitting on your porch swing or reading by the fire...but like me put off joy to complete the task at hand?   Then maybe we should learn a lesson from Harry, and live in the moment, taking full advantage of the sweet gifts that the Lord has given us for our delight...lilacs in full bloom being one of them.  I am not advocating slothfulness, but rather a balance, looking to blend opportunities for joy into each day by giving my full attention to the smell of coffee in the morning or the hoot of the owl outside my bedroom window at night.

Maybe, like Harry, we should learn to live each day as if it were our last.     DLB

Surviving February

I just took this picture today...but you may mistake it for a Fall picture because of the trees on the left.  I don't know what kind of tree this is, but once it sheds its leaves in the Fall, the branches and twigs remain yellow...

If there is any month of the year that I am prone to depression, it is February.  If I am going to quit a job, cut my hair or move, it is going to be in February.  By this time of year, winter has gone on just a little too long, and my thoughts become as dreary as the weather.  My sister says that it is because I don't get enough sunlight...but I think it is just because I am tired of brown.

Those of you in warmer climates may not get this, because your grass stays green all through the winter.  But in Wyoming, once we get that first frost, all the grass turns brown until next spring.  I don't mind it so much when it is covered with snow, but by February the snow is scarce and the trees are bare and brown, the grass is brown, the mountains are brown...even the streets in town are brown because of all the dirt that they sanded the streets with.  Brown...brown...brown.  How depressing!

I talked to my mother-in-law last week, and she is going through the same winter madness.  She said that my sister-in-law redecorated a corner of Aunt Myrtle's house, and though it was a small thing, she said it really gave Myrt a lift.  She decided to ask my sister-in-law to work a little magic on a room in her house too...

A lift!  A lift to get through February...what a great idea!  So I sat down and came up with a few plans for a lift of my own.  My February survival kit included rearranging the furniture of our bedroom, and a trip to the local nursery.  Of course it is too early to buy outdoor plants...but I can walk the rows of newly planted potted plants, smell the soil and the moisture, and drench myself in GREEN!  I can buy seeds for my garden while I am there, before all the french pumpkin seeds sell out.

I can goto Walmart and buy a forced bulb plant, either tulips or better yet, a fragrant hyacinth and put it on my kitchen table.  I can call a friend and go out to lunch.  I can spend an afternoon at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, and browse until my heart's content because there will be no tourists.  And I can listen to my sister and GET MORE SUNLIGHT!

So today I rearranged my bedroom.  I moved the bed up against the  East facing wall, and now I can lie on my bed and see Carter Mountain, all covered with snow. 

And you know what?  It really DID give me a lift!  I may survive February after all!  DLB

 

So What Bugs You?

On the outskirts of Cody, on the road that leads straight to Yellowstone Park, is a picture of the first of two tunnels under and through Rattlesnake Mountain.  On the other side of the tunnels is the dam at Buffalo Bill Reservoir.

I read somewhere in a magazine about a woman that reviewed her life every six months.  She would decide what was working in her life, and if something wasn't working...well, she changed it if she could.

I thought that was a pretty good idea, and decided that it is really not the big things in life that bug me as much as the little daily things...and one of the things that I really wanted to change was...grocery shopping at WALMART! 

Now I know that this may sound funny to the rest of you that live in big areas with lots of stores, but in Cody you can only buy groceries at Walmart and Albertsons.  Albertsons is way too expensive for me...but I hate shopping at Walmart.  For one thing it is just too darn big...and since they rearranged everything I can't find what I am looking for.  And to top it off, they have these Walmart TV's that play some kind of boom chuka music with a beat that just jars my nerves.  Top that off with vast hordes of people, and well...you get the picture.  Grocery shopping at Walmart was something that I dreaded and decided that it just wasn't working for me.

So today I had the bright idea that I would begin to do my grocery shopping at a grocery store in Powell, which is a smaller town about 22 miles from here.  For some reason I picked today, when it was 5 degrees, to do this, and talked my husband into going with me.  We went to the grocery store in Powell, and it was QUIET.  And the people were friendly...I ran into lots of people that I knew.  It was warm and downright cozy and I patted myself on my back because I FINALLY found the solution to my Walmart problem...until I began to notice that the groceries that I was putting into my cart were running about 75 cents to a dollar more per item than they cost at Walmart.  Bacon was $1.50 more for the same brand I bought in Cody.  My cart was about 1/4 full when I finally figured out that I can't afford to buy my groceries in Powell, and had to put everything back and listen to my husband say, "I told you so."

We headed back to Cody, and I did my grocery shopping at Walmart...and I decided that while atmosphere is important, so is paying my electric bill...so Walmart it is.

BUT...at least I considered what wasn't working for me, and I wasn't so frustrated when I shopped there today because I know now that there is no reasonable alternative.  I decided that I will just shop there early in the morning, when it is quieter and I can think. 

So my day wasn't a total waste of time...I got to have lunch with my husband in Powell, and learned that 'cozy' has a higher price that in this case I wasn't willing to pay.  But I felt good that at least I confronted something that bugged me.

So what's bugging you these days?  Is there something, maybe some little thing that you could change to put a little bit more joy in your daily life?  Maybe the cold and quiet days of January are a good time to rethink some of the little things in your life.

See you at Walmart!  DLB

 

 

Is a Vacation a Waste of Money?

Happy New Year Everybody!  It was a snowy day in Cody on New Year's Day...although the above picture was taken a few days ago.  If you see the pine trees that look a little sickly, that would be the disease that has been killing pine trees up and down the North Fork, making it a tinderbox that caught fire and burned many acres this past summer.  We are planning on spending a few days of vacation at Shoshone Lodge this June, but before I started hoarding every extra cent we decided to drive up and make sure that the area around the lodge was not burnt to a crisp!  I was relieved to see that the area was just as beautiful as the last time that we stayed there, so the vacation is on!  

The nice thing about planning a vacation within 50 miles of where you live, is that you can put money into something other than gas.  Because if we had to drive a lot, we would only have the money to camp.  I love camping but as I am getting older, sleeping in a damp tent is not as thrilling as it used to be.  And with all the grizzly bears around here I get a little nervous every time I hear a twig crunch in the night.  I sleep better in a little cabin with a soft bed, and something harder than a tent wall between me and the grizzlies!

I think that vacations are important.  In our fast paced frantic culture, it is good for our health to slow down a little.  But since the economy is tanking...many of us are rethinking vacation plans.  We decided that instead of canceling our vacation we will stay close to home, saving gas money, and getting a cabin with a little stove and refrigerator so that we won't have to eat out.  And we won't go into debt for our vacation.  We have a little envelope, and every extra dollar that we can save by giving up something else...goes into the envelope.  How much we save will determine how many days we get to spend at the Lodge. 

I guess what I am trying to say is that memories are important too, and as Edith Schaeffer says must be put into the budget.  And sometimes the inexpensive vacations are the most fun!  A cold wintery day in January may be the best time to sit down and consider how you want to budget for your memories!  DLB

 

 

Creative Fun

My rule is that there are no dogs allowed on the furniture.  Period.  But Trigger decided that as long as I was vacuuming downstairs, he could safely take a little nap in the chair next to the bed.  Too bad I left the broom upstairs, and disturbed his little snooze!

When we first moved to Cody (many years ago) we were living on one income while I stayed home to raise my son.  We were broke...well, I take that back.  We had enough money to cover our expenses, but not much else.  Certainly not money for extravagant entertainment.

Living on a limited income makes you creative in your recreation options.  We took a lot of walks on Main Street, looking in windows.  We went to everything free in Cody...Friday evening band concerts in the park, the Museum free days for residents, parades (Cody has a lot of parades), fireworks, and ice cream socials.  We also took advantage of the many rivers and lakes around here to fish in the summer, cross country ski in the winter.  We went on lots of picnics, winter and summer.

When I went back to work, we had a lot more money.  No time, but more money.  If we wanted to do something, the financial aspect did not stand in our way. The good old days!

Not so anymore.  Almost two years ago I quit my full time job in order to have a better quality home life, and we are living on one income again.  And once more we are being more creative in what we do for fun around here.  Again, we are doing everything free (tomorrow is the Silver Tea at an area church for a Christmas musical treat).  Instead of eating out, we walk to the Irma in the evening and have a hot chocolate.  Or pie.  We still get to go out, but the bill is cheaper! 

We spend a lot of time at the library.  Magazines that I used to plunk down $5.00 for I can browse for free.  Saturday is our town Christmas promotion, and there will be carolers, cloggers and a Christmas light parade, all free for the taking.  Instead of having lunch out, I can make a big pot of chili, and we can walk back home when we get hungry. 

Our country is facing really tough economic times...and entertainment money may be struck from the family budget in order to pay for necessities.  Instead of bemoaning what can't be changed, it is kind of fun to be a little more creative in finding ways to cut back here and there...to stretch the family budget. 

Because I have found that the memories are just as sweet holding hands taking a walk in the snow, as they are eating out at the swankiest restaurant.  The key is to get your focus off what you can't do, and onto what you CAN do!  DLB