Dreams of a Simpler Life

When I was a young lady, around the same age as my now 11 year old daughter, I was as voracious a reader as I am now. I loved getting lost in a book, letting my imagination carry me to other lands, other lives, while developing emotional ties to the characters in my books. There were several series which I truly adored, but one of them stands out most strongly to me, and that was the Little House in the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls-Wilder. I read every book several times, and also watched the television series every week. I would imagine myself as Laura, strong and feisty, exploring my world. Or I would be Mary, meek and intelligent, charming everyone around her. I would get lost in the Prairie while reading, deriving great joy from the stories, and fuming in indignant anger when Nellie Olson would mistreat the Ingalls girls.

Last week our local Christian television station has begun to air the series, from the beginning in order. So I decided I would like to watch it all again; it is like walking through time back into a simpler version of life, and a more innocent version of myself. And of course, the show holds new meaning to me now that I am an adult, as I relate more closely to Charles and Caroline than their children now.

And I am full of yearning when I watch the program every day after work; such a simple time, when family was a tightly knit unit who spent time together caring for the home, working together, tending to chores together. And I find myself drifting off into imagination, as I did when I was a young lady; oh what a wonderfully laborious life the pioneers lived. Yes, they had to work incredibly hard, physical labor to grow their own food, and tend to their own livestock. Travel was done by foot or by wagon or horse, and as a result no one was in much of a hurry at all. What a stark contrast to the lives we live today.

Can you imagine a life where you woke with the dawning sun and spent your day working with your family members towards the productive betterment of your homestead, where you gather round the table together at meal time and talk about your day with one another. Wouldn't it be divine to not have to worry about the phone ringing and interrupting your meal, or being late for school, or about having the latest gadget to simplify your life?

Of course it would be quite impossible to "go back" to that simpler time now, as we've become such a technologically advanced people, and yet my heart surely wishes it were possible to move back through time to experience what our forefathers lived.

If we have any control over our souls destiny, and have some say in when and where we reincarnate in our next expression of physicality I would very much like to go back in time. My ideal reincarnation would take me to the Scottish Highlands in the 13-1600's, to a small rocky cottage upon a hillside which looks down into a crystal clear lake. I go to this place often in my minds eye, in my imagination and meditations. I see a small pen containing fowl, a few sheep, perhaps a cow or two. I see crude implements used for daily chores such as washing up, and cooking. And I see myself surrounded by my family, many children and a husband living in a small stone cottage with a ruddy wooden door. And every day we would work together as a family, as a team, to keep our cottage clean, our bellies fed, sewing our clothing, providing our own fabrics by spending hours at a spinning wheel and loom. The work would be hard, the life would be sparse and humble, and yet the small joys would mean the world to me.

To sit as the sun sets, children tucked into tiny pallets with hand made quilts, husband and I watching the sun go down over the mountains, spending time talking.

This is what my heart dreams of. Simplicity, innocence. Why does mankind fight so hard to advance and evolve? It seems we've lost so much of ourselves in the last two hundred years.

What I wouldn't give to stand on ground unaffected by technology, to look into a night sky unfettered by city lights; how amazing would it be to swim in waters that had never been polluted...

Maybe in the next life :)