La Vie Simple (The Simple Life)

Yesterday I was sharing my angst about having to go for a week without any internet access. My life seems so much smaller without it. And it is in a way. But as I was contemplating what thoughts I wanted to share with you today, I was remembering where I was exactly one year ago today, the Chateau deGudanes. Yes, thankfully, there was internet access there. But I really didn’t spend much time on-line other than to connect with friends and family briefly and keep my email junk from becoming totally out of control before I could return home. What was important then, as now, and I need to remind myself of this as I deal with a week with limited internet access, is the importance and beauty of the place where you are at the moment and the need, nay duty, to relate to and appreciate it. I remember last year loving the opportunity to wait for the clothes to dry on the clotheslines and using that time to just sit and soak up my surroundings. There was no sense of urgency. Nature would dry things in good time while I enjoyed the sun on my face and arms and the opportunity to sit in the near silence of the moment with only the sound of the wind in the trees as my musical background. I would read from my book for awhile, and then just look around me at the clouds moving over the mountains and hear the sound of the rushing water in the little river below me. Sometimes there would be the sounds of cars going and coming on the road below. But otherwise it was just me caught up in what can only be described as “la vie simple.” In today’s world of Covid-19 and protests and politics that seem all too often to be out of control, we need such times to regenerate and rediscover what is really important. I am going to try to find opportunities, big and small, that can take me back to that much-needed appreciation. Having little or no internet access for nearly the next week prompts me to find here in East Tennessee what was so easily found at the Chateau last year.