Laura Ingalls Wilder or Jane Austin? Log cabin set in the American prairies or victorian mansion in the English countryside?
Two very different settings, and yet I have always found a love for both. There is something so wonderful about getting lost in someone else’s story, set in a different time in history. There is a beauty in learning something of the past as we consider our futures. And even if the stories are fiction, there is something based on the history of the period they lived, something we can learn.
Perhaps, I also enjoy historical fiction so much because life seemed to move at a slower pace, and it appears to permit me to slow down. While understanding that life was far from easy in times past, there also appeared a simplicity. People understood and appreciated the effort it took to grow and produce the food served, and there was no such thing as fast food. They understood the value of habits and routines, tea time and supper before bed, music played, books read by the fire, blankets that kept them warm having been hand-stitched with love.
In Ashley Hales, new book, A Spacious Life, she says, “I wonder if the Instant Pot (or any time-saving device) not only short circuits our sense of time but also helps us reimagine how transformation happens. When I cut my cooking time in half with a new gadget, I become accustomed to this new level of ease and dismiss the work and length of time that normally cooking would take.” Her statement leads me to ask if perhaps, we have allowed modern conveniences to fool us into thinking we can do more in less time?
Continuing with that mindset, it seems possible that we live demanding more of ourselves than is reasonable, having forgotten that real-life lived well takes time to live. And in doing so, we so easily fall prey to a pace of life that leaves us little space to appreciate the beauty of ordinary living. The ordinary tasks of keeping a home, cooking a meal, tending a garden, even parenting have become weights we carry, a list of chores.
Have we allowed ordinary life to become a list of chores and things to do, as we seek the extra-ordinary?
The most common answer to the question, how are you, is busy. Almost like being busy is a badge of honor, something we wear proudly. And yet, our world is plagued with mental health issues; stress, anxiety, and depression. And, I can’t help but wonder if maybe we have set ourselves up with unrealistic expectations for life. We become disillusioned with our lives because we believe we should achieve more yet find we can not keep up. We are overwhelmed and assume that is life, and we have no other option than to keep pushing forward. We dare not pause for fear of being left behind.
And in our lack of pause, it seems we have forgotten the simple beauty of setting the table for dinner, the smell of freshly baked bread, the joy of hand-picked flowers from our weed-infested garden. We have forgotten that living well is a slow work in process, not a goal to achieve. We have forgotten that life is not a list of chores but something beautiful to create in the ordinary of our days.
Today, as I write, the rain falls heavy, rain seems to invite us to slow down. We need the rain, and as I look out, instead of seeing the inconvenience of a rainy day, I choose to see the invitation. Already it is mid-October, and we have seen only a few fall-like days. So today feels like an invitation and a gift to embrace the season, light candles, wear a sweater and make soup on the stove for dinner tonight.
You can get so rushed chasing a certain kind of remarkable life that you miss the fact that you’re already standing inside the one God gave you.
Jennifer Dukes Lee
Wherever you find yourself, whatever season of life you are currently living,
I pray that you find space in your days to embrace the beauty of living an ordinary life.
Books referenced/quoted:
A Spacious Life: Trading Hustle and Hurry for the Goodness of Limits by Ashley Hales
Growing Slow: Lessons on Un-Hurrying Your Heart From an Accidental Farm Girl by Jennifer Dukes Lee
