I got up this morning when the sun peeked in through the mini blinds. Rats! It was only six o'clock. I slipped back under the covers and picked up the book I have been reading. It is a frontier novel called "Drums of Change". Relaxing with the cozy blankets to chase the ever-so-slight chill (50 degrees outside)I walked the prairie with Running Fawn.
While I endured the arduous trek with my heroine, I wondered if I should put the oven on to get things warmed up. What a silly thought, right? If I were living back on the Rock I would never dream of putting the heat on when it was 50 degrees out! Mom would have a fit...lol! It embarrassed me a little that I even thought about it. Back to Running Fawn, who was walking the long walk to return to her people. Her father was gravely ill. She was in fact running away from residential school to try and make it home before he died. Of course, you know that I could not put the book down until Running Fawn had set foot back inside her father's teepee. That's my girl...she did it. So what, you may think. Well, I always figure that I come from a long line of stubborn women so I give her two points for having the gumption to hit the road and do the right thing. (I will pick it back up tonight when I settle down to sleep.)
Anyway, back at the cabin, I just laid the book down. Did not want to finish it yet, you see. So I made my bed, heated the water for my shower, and then heated more for the dishes. After my shower and doing the dishes, I swept the floor. With that out of the way, I sat down to enjoy a brunch of sorts. The phone rang and a friend invited me to a concert this evening. A Native American singer named Bill Miller is going to be at the town of Attica high school tonight. Of course, I am going to go. When a girlfriend calls with free tickets, well, it is a no-brainer.
I spent some time just wondering if I would go walk into town for exercise. Today is Saturday so there is no job to go to and the computer lab is closed. All in all, life is peaceful.
It reminds me of living on Cabot Street so many years ago when I was growing up in St. John's, Newfoundland. I would wake up and hear the workmen working on the street. Life was good. Before too long, the kids would be out playing, the women hanging out their clothes on the line, the men gone off to work, and the old people would be out visiting or chewing the fat on the front step or the gallery, if they had one. There were no big problems, that I remember. If some hard times came to us, we just put our heads down and worked our way through it.
As children, we knew that we had our classroom to go to through the week. We would play skipping or jacks, or tag, or ball after school. On the weekend in the fall and winter, we would go to Prince of Wales Arena to ice skate. In the summer in the evening, we would go to the Stadium to roller skate. There was always a cup of tea and a good meal on the table. My grandmother made the homemade bread. We just had it knocked, you know. Life was so simple.
Today, I do believe that I enjoy a similar stability here in small town America. I don't worry about much, just whether I will make chili (not cold enough yet) or spaghetti sauce. I do have garlic bread in the freezer... I don't have a gallery yet but I know that when I do, I will sit out there and visit with my friends. There will always be a cup of tea and a good meal on the table. Although I would love to be able to move back to Newfoundland and share some times with my old friends, I have found myself living simply once again in my life. Thank goodness that when the storm came I found a quiet and safe place to weather it out.
But I have to go now, I have to put the kettle on...there is a friend at the door. Can I talk to you later? Sign me, Living Simply in small town America at Journey's End, M
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