Simplicity

There is something so special about leaving behind the daily duties of life, the endless to-do lists, the heavy weight of responsibility…and trading it all in for the freedom that a few days of simplicity can bring.

I am an adventurer by nature, an explorer of sorts, a restless heart always trying to grab onto more of life. Yet I often find myself with a handful of life slipping through my fingers like sand as I try to look too far ahead to the next moment. And somewhere in this crazy mess of growing up, I’ve lost my childlike spirit of living completely in each day and appreciating each moment exactly as it is.

The past few days, I found myself rekindling this childlike spirit, finding contentment in each and every moment. It started with a spontaneous, last-minute decision to go camping. Whenever my Mom comes to town, crazy adventurous ideas like this are not unusual…they have kind of become the norm with us. So we rallied whatever camping supplies we could find, packed the car and headed north to hit the beach and set up camp.

The simple joys of camping are something I crave as I sit her on my back porch in the morning sunlight. My hair is no longer salty and tangled, my feet no longer sandy and blackened by dirt, my sunburned nose has faded to a golden tan, and the campfire smell of my raggedy sweatshirt has dissipated. But these simple things, these moments of absolute vulnerability, where my hair is messy and tangled, my clothes are sandy and dirty, these are the moments when my heart feels the most open, the most joyful, the most content. These are the raw moments when we realize that it is truly these simple things that bring us such great joy. It’s easy to be captivated by the glitz and supposed glamour of an extravagant life. But does that extravagance fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts?

Sitting on the beach, relaxing in the sun, flipping through the pages of my book, while the sea breeze blew over me and the hot sun warmed my back, I think I realized that the draw of extravagence is inevitable, but the joy of simplicity is the more fulfilling route to take.