Simple. Easy.

The other day I was wondering about struggle and conflict, be it internal or external.  Struggle is pivotal to books and movies, drawing us in, keeping us reading or watching. And yet, when struggle or conflict happens in real life, we want it gone. Immediately. But it’s not that easy, to simply wave a magic wand and, within the hour, like in a movie, everything is resolved. It sits with us, hour after hour, day after day, asking to be included with everything else that may be going on in  our lives.

But those were yesterday’s thoughts. Today I’m wondering about easy and how much simpler it is to sometimes take the easier route. Which doesn’t mean you don’t care, but simply that you save your efforts for things that matter more, things that align with how you want to live your life, and let go of what you think is expected of you or the need to ‘accomplish’.

It’s been several years since I let go of Christmas must-do’s or must-haves. I take the easy route now, with minimal decorations:  a tiny twig tree hauled up from my storage locker, a few decorations and pine cones around the mantel (which is not really a mantel, above an electric fireplace), a small poinsettia plant – and I call it Done! 

I’ve had the pine cones for many years, they’re older than my daughter (29). One year, when I was still married, I’d gone to the woods and gathered mounds of cones. I brought them home, put them in a cardboard box and spray-painted them gold. I liked their simple elegance and kept them, carting them through two moves, bringing them out every Christmas and even giving a bag of them to my daughter to use in her own home.

Simple. Easy. Those might be the words I choose for myself next year. 

A few years ago, in a writing class, one woman spoke of Formative Words. Each year she chose a word. The word then showed up throughout the year in some way to guide and teach her. This idea impressed itself upon me.  I love words, and the laziness in me decided that choosing a word was so much easier than making a resolution, which, in any case, I never do.  But I was determined to try out this word-of-the-year thing for myself. 

For a couple of years I pondered words in early January, unsure how I would know if it was the RIGHT word. One year I chose ‘curiosity’, hoping it would lead me to new and interesting things – like learning a new language or travelling to a new place. But by February I had forgotten all about my chosen word and went about life in my usual way – planning trips and procrastinating on tasks that held little appeal.

Maybe, in 2022, I will choose ‘simple and easy’.  Hopefully, by February I will not have forgotten.