Keys to Contentment-the List

I've come up with a list to help me get through the upcoming road trip.
Not that I haven't enjoyed the last few I've taken, but what's that song that begs," I sure hope the road don't come to own me?"

I think it's a Carole King's So Far Away.

The list helps me put the whole picture into perspective, and I realize I used this same list when hiking.

1-Get in a quiet, undisturbed place, in your mind, or in a chair.

2-Verbalize or actually write down what's worrying me.

3-Think back to another worrisome time, like 3 months ago, what were the big issues?

4-Realize in 3 months, the worries of today will likewise be solved, and other things
will take their place.


The beauty of this process is I realize during step 3, I'm hard put to even remember what the worries were. I know there must have been some, no doubt I was likewise consumed with them. They got solved. Bottom line, as long as we keep on keeping on, all issues will be resolved.

It's hard to imagine its been a whole year since that oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Its been 5 weeks since the earthquake-nuclear disaster in Japan. This fall will mark the 10th anniversary of 9-11. Can it really be nearly 10 years since those trade centers fell?

Thoreau wrote, "My purpose in going to Walden Pond was not to live cheaply nor to live dearly there, but to transact some private business with the fewest obstacles;"

and this next part I'm still baffled by as he continued,

"to be hindered from accomplishing which for want of a little common sense, a little enterprise and business talent, appeared not so sad as foolish."

I'm thinking it means he also went into the woods so that he could actually be prevented by nature, because of his seclusion, from accomplishing some foolish boring job.

I just read they've discovered 647 new islands. Adventure is not over.

The True Cost

Thoreau said the true cost of any given thing is how much of your life you'd be willing to give up for it.

In other words, if you don't spend it, you don't have to earn it, and that whole idea gives you free time.

This website:

http://www.therealdamage.com/

has interactive features which enable you to see in dollar and cents what any given item will cost you, on sale, on credit, in cash, over the long haul.

I'm not against goodies. Eliminating impulse buys, or practicing some delayed gratification, means more time to play with the toys we already have.

Play at the Lake

Today David and I went to Lake Joccasse to swim, snorkel and scuba dive.

Going through the local town we could see 14 businesses closed within just 1/2 a mile. A Tuesday afternoon should have been busier in town, some traffic, a few shoppers, maybe tourists.

We hear on the news things aren't looking too good for the housing market, and jobs are still very hard to come by. Will there be an economic recovery that could ever bring back "the good old days?"

Maybe the question is what makes good days? Is it money, or confidence in our future, or just enjoying life?

Today was a lot of fun, good simple fun. I don't scuba so my part was simple. Just swiming, playing with the small fish schooling by the diver's ramp, walking on the trail along the shore. I made a simple backpacking stove, and read a chapter in a book.

We stopped to buy fruits and vegetables from the local produce store. Vine ripened tomatoes, local cantaloupe, cabbage from nearby farm, and some apples. I like to support the small markets when possible.

None of this cost much and was peaceful and rewarding. Those are my goals for the future. Today I just enjoyed life.

Thoreau once wrote "What demon has possessed me that I have behaved so well?".
Perhaps, like today, the demon of contentment.

A Race With Yourself

The landscape by its patient resting there, teaches me that all good remains with him that waiteth, and that I shall sooner overtake the dawn by remaining here, than by hurrying over the hills of the west.--H.D. T

This is much like a favorite quote I found in a trail register on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2000. "In the end you find, no one wins, and the race was only with yourself.

So, take the path of your own choosing, and don't be dismayed if no one leads, or follows.--Unknown

It seems there is so much impatience, and looking back over life, didn't everything go so fast. In the end, how much of it will matter.