A clear conscience...

... is usually a sign of a bad memory.

Take a minute and read this blog:

http://zenhabits.net/scarce/

Sounds great, doesn't it?

Now take a minute and read this (or skim it: there's a lot of ranting there):

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/13/1016557/-That-was-my-brothers-death-you-were-cheering,-you-a$$holes

It's a different view of scarcity, isn't it?

I think that's what annoys me the most about the so-called "Simple Living" people. They are making a deliberate choice to do without. But so many people are FORCED to do without. So the Simpler Livers coming off sounding sanctimonious. I know that's not the intent, but it's what happens.

::shaking my head:: I can understand making a virtue out of adversity, but let it be a choice, okay?

Good judgment comes from experience,

... and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

I'm in the process of house hunting with my husband. We are doing this from 250 miles away, so we're house hunting on the Internet (oh, what an interesting process that is!)

Through a long story best told over a drink in a bar, we somehow ended up talking with a person whose house is for sale. In a long, long conversation we found out it's in foreclosure, the man & his wife don't know if they'll be evicted, the house has 'a few cosmetic problems but it's in a great location' and...

The story continues. My initial response was 'how can someone let themselves get stuck in a situation like that.' Then I took a step back and realized, 'hmm. that can easily happen. Look at us. For a time, we'll carry two mortgages until we sell our current house. What if...'


Yep. It's important to keep it in perspective. There but for the grace of God (and a bit of good judgment) go I...

It is better to be pleasantly absent...

...than miserably present.

Yep, I've been absent, and for a while it was unpleasant, but lately it's been pleasantly so.

The unpleasant was dealing with my mother's death in November. That's a black hole of time and emotion. Her death was expected -- she was ill and her death was, I think, a blessing to her -- but her loss is still grievous to me. We were very close and I miss her dearly. But she would hate for me to dwell on it, so I'm trying not to.

Then Christmas rolled around and, lo and behold, I discovered a few days before Christmas that I had no web site -- the host company decided to un-host me. So I had to scramble to put together a new web site. Along the way I decided I didn't want a 'regular' web site (one that required me to use special software in order to update it). So that led me think about Cloud Computing (yes, my mind wanders in odd and strange ways), and voila, I have a slog -- a web site blog.

Is it perfect? Nope. But it's Okay. And that led me to think about perfection. Why do we strive for what we perceive to be "just right"? The world is not trampling a path to my web site. It's okay if it's not perfect. It's okay if some people go, 'ew. How odd. Why not have a Real Web Site." The new site does what I want: it lets me update it easily, I can get out word about my books, and I can add content whenever I feel like it.

Win-win-win as far as I'm concerned.

You know, the older I get, the more I think it's not the Hokey-Pokey ("that's what it's all about"). It's about time and how we manage it and our absences.