The Good Life

I have been having a sort of content week, it has been busy as usual, but the evenings have been quite nice.

Our number one and only son has finally moved out to his room, with a long extension cord and no internal walls, but he is very content too. Once his furniture went in (after all the drama with the vinyl floor covering) he just moved on in, we thought he was a bit hesitant, but I think he was just waiting for his stuff.

The main residence (that sound very grand but really just means the big shed) is now very open and the middle roller door can now be opened again, and WOW what a difference that makes. The outside truly comes in, all the light and air, all at once, and of course all the bugs and dust too, but I can live with that as it is all so open and spacious (well, it will be spacious when the rest of the junk in the middle of the floor is sorted).

The bookcases have been moved and sorted out (I like order in my books so they are all in categories), the computers are together making a little office area with the printer, and my old desk from my teenager years holds my laptop and other stationary stuff but not clutter. Old drawers with animals painted on the front by me and two drawers missing, hold paper, telephone directory, sticky tape and all that sort of stuff.

I have gotten out my cotton mats that I love and my partner in crime and life doesn’t, and they are now on the floor and look just great, helping to cover our cement floor. The antique (supposedly) Chinese desk has candles, crystals, Buddha and a dragon on it, oh, and of course incense holder.

I feel like drumming every day now, and we have a great Djembe that sounds fantastic very loud. It doesn’t matter that I have no rhythm, I love it and no-one can hear. I heard an interview on the ABC radio a while ago with Emily Rodda and she said she realised that it didn’t’ matter if she wasn’t good at writing (obviously is) but she enjoyed it and that is the only reason needed. I really like that and try to remember that every day.

The afternoons this week have been so great. The doors wide open, letting all the light and air and space, dinner cooking, music up a bit loud, usually something folksy like the Indigo Girls or Joni Mitchell, The Waifs or Jack Johnson (not sure he is folksy but you get the idea) , and a glass of wine in hand. The birds in the trees are making some noise getting ready for the evening, so are the cicadas, and maybe we will see the wild duck families waddling around (one family is nearly grown but still together and now a new one has popped up with three very little ones, hope they survive out there in the world).

The world just falls away for me. It is out there outside our boundary, and a lot of the time I don’t want to go out there, just being content to be here on my own and doing my thing. I could easily not go out there at all except that after a bit I do crave some great company despite myself. But the rest of the time I can just be here, all that out there doesn’t matter (also except for my craving to be up-to-date with world news and to be aware).

Anyway, I hope most of my evenings are like this and my days too. Pottering in the garden and hoping one day to have enough to feed the family mainly from it, encouraging the chooks to lay some eggs (they have to be so close now), having a glass of wine while watching the sun set over the horizon while the bats fly over in the darkening sky looking for something to eat, or the rain falling in a fine mist over the bush, and letting the world just disappear. This has to truly be the good life.