An Abundance of Simplicity

I sit here in my study with a cup of coffee, warming myself in the glow of the morning's sunrise, with Maya, my dog, at my feet, and I think, "yes, what a wonderful life." An abundance of simplicity surrounds me, whose sum total is happiness.

I made a simple fountain which consists of two elements of nature whose interaction fascinates me: rocks and water. I keep it running to remind me of our trip to the Grand Canyon and the lesson learned there.

Like many visitors to the Canyon, I was overwhelmed by its beauty and grandeur. But, what I found most fascinating about the Grand Canyon was how nature's most yielding of substances, water, with time, had carved a sculpture out of Mother Earth's oldest and most resistant Precambrian rocks.

The lesson learned on that visit to Arizona, of yielding in the face of resistance, can be the most freeing and creative approach to life.

And so this morning, I look forward to the day's unfolding. I lead a simple life. And I am happiest when I live the lessons taught me by nature: resistance to the flow of life is ridiculous for I shall simply be beaten about. But to go with life, yielding like water, to obstacles in my path, finding a new way around them, rather than wearing myself down by conflict with them, will bring me out safely in the calm, still waters and I will avoid the rapids. Only then can I enjoy the abundance of simplicity about me.