Simplify, Simplify

"Our life is frittered away by detail. . . Simplify, simply."

And with those simple words, I became hooked on Henry David Thoreau.  My 11th-grade English teacher, Mr. Becker, introduced us to the world of Transcendentalism.  His expertise on this topic and his amazingness as a teacher helped me expand my thinking and think beyond my little Nebraska world.

I love everything about Thoreau, but my absolute favorite passage comes from Walden.  Thoreau tells us we work and run around like ants, and we don't take time to appreciate what we really have.  He tells us our lives are complicated with too much detail, and we need to simplify.  This rings true now more than then.  We've so cluttered our world with everything from technology to clothing to cars and even food choices.  I long to just retreat to a cabin in the woods and get away from it all at times.

During this Thanksgiving season, I plan to slow down and savor all the blessings in my life.  I will be traveling to Nebraska with my traveling companion, my mom, where most of my family lives.  First stop--Lincoln--to help my brother celebrate 60 years of living a great life and to see my sister in law and feel her warm embrace and to hug tightly my nieces and nephew and to get to know our little Lucy and to watch the Huskers stomp Iowa.  Next stop--Cairo (Nebraska, not Egypt!) to celebrate my niece's 32nd year of a beautiful life and to see my sister and to be surrounded by love and joy and laughter with E and Drake and beautiful Quinn.

Simplicity.  Life is good!