Glittering Pebbles

"We heap around us things that we do not need as the crow makes piles of glittering pebbles." - Laura Ingalls Wilder

She was born in 1867. I was born in 1976. Nevertheless, I grew up alongside Laura. It is lost to time how many trips through her books I made, watching her determined pioneer spirit and learning her way of appreciating simplicity and the true treasures in life.

The quote above is found in her later writings, compiled in "Little House in the Ozarks." She goes on to say "I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking. It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature. There are no hothouse blossoms that can compare in beauty and fragrance with my bouquet of wildflowers."

Love. Duty. Work. Rest. Nature. I inwardly long for a life such as the one she describes. We could live with so much less than we have and be happier. Some of the more cynical among you would remind me that living the pioneer life meant living without indoor plumbing, without central air, without computers and cell phones. It meant hard work. Very hard work. Hard work that had you up with the dawn and in bed with the sunset. Yes, it would be a very different life. We would have to be different people.

But I can imagine the satisfaction MacGyver would have building his own house from the pines he cut and hauled to the mill himself. The pleasure it would be for him to have his sons trail after him as he went about his work, teaching them and preparing them to be hard workers themselves. I can imagine what a wonderful feeling it would be to grow a garden full of fruits and vegetables with my girls, or expertly kneed and bake our own bread, or sew instead of surf the Internet, and read instead of clicking on the tv.

Life would be harder. But life would mean more.

I am glad that we have modern conveniences. I like facebook's way of reuniting me with every person I've ever known. I enjoy blogging. It's awfully handy to be able to google anything and get an immediate answer to a question. I am relieved to know that my family has access to antibiotics and emergency medical care if it is needed. Cars come in handy when you've got aways to go.

But all of this costs money. And time. And maybe just a little part of ourselves that was made for simpler things. What does this earth not provide for us that we had to create such a complicated system to sustain our lives?

Chances are I'll never get to live Laura's simple life. But maybe I can begin to take the steps in that direction, and someday, somehow, my children or my children's children could find their way back.

So the question becomes, what can we live without?

The answer, I suspect, is much.