vowel

i've been thinking a lot in recent months about money management. i was once told that spending time thinking of money means that you are enslaved to it. and while i think money is something we need to be careful with (since it's addictive), i don't believe it controls me. actually to the contrary i feel that money management is actually part of my skill-set. anyways, since i'm a big fan of the show "til debt do us part", i've been exposed to a different approach to use of money in terms of the future. this different perspective didn't quite fit with my world view and it caused me to wrestle to figure out how prudence and faith mix. i want to live generously, and i want to travel/explore, and i want to save responsibly. so what do i do?? but now after many months of wondering both in my head and outloud, i've discovered the middle ground. i don't need to have a fortune. i don't need to have nothing. i simply need to have enough. i don't need a big empty home, or a small one room apartment. i need simply enough space. i don't need lots of clothes, or only one set, i need enough clothes. enough food. enough shoes. enough adventure. enough rest. so then the question is... what is enough? how do we know when we have enough? for me that's the point when i can get by well without more. and truth be told, there are many things that i have more than enough of, so i'm going to downsize. declutter. i'm going to aim to not bring more into my life without letting go of something else. shoes in... shoes out. towels in... towels out. digital camera in... digital camera out. it's not so much that having things is wrong, it's the hording when i could choose to be generous and give freely to people who are without enough.

have you ever had the experience when you get an email from a friend that is less than 20 words long, and although neither of you have said it specifically you know that your friendship is over? i know that friends come and go as life changes and we all have different experiences, but it makes me sad because i loved him so. in contrast to that, i got home from book club last night feeling so thankful for friendships that are meaningful and deep. i have a plethora of great and wonderful friends. i'm very lucky. thanks girls for listening and encouraging me to keep on keeping on!

after 4 years of excellent service... my baking stone broke. it was in the oven, cooking dinner, and snapped in half! i've never heard of that before! and funnily enough... the pizza stone we've been using instead shattered this week too! bizarre. apparently our kitchen is taking revenge on our stoneware. in the case of the pizza stone, b unwittingly placed it on a burner that was on and it basically exploded.

if i had an orchard i'd work til i'm sore.