K. I. S. S.

Two Word Challenge 

6AM...birds chirping sweet nothins to each other, coffee steaming in my Starbucks cup, dew dripping from the trees, fog lifting from the dampened newly cut grass while I sit wrapped in a light throw, rocking away on my front porch.  Ahhh, it doesn't get any better than this.  Who would have thunk it!  Me, the workaholic...the hurry up and get it done...the multi-tasker of all multi-taskers...sitting here enjoying what I once called the "simple life". 

Yes, one might call it the simple life; however, it took me a lifetime to appreciate this meaning of the term.  Before God gave me time to see beyond the 8 to 5 (more like 5 to 8), the PTA (not much of that though), the keep up with the Jones' (well, maybe "catch up with") I would have had a sarcastic chuckle in my tone when using the term "simple life".  In that world, it was the epitome of an oxymoron.  Life was anything but simple.  In that world, simple meant....ummmm, poor, lazy, narrow minded even?  The only place it fit was in task setting.  I remember many times talking with my team about using the K.I.S.S. system when planning maintenance calls or conversion trips.  Being all young computer techs, they liked to call me the K.I.S.S. Queen.  Oh, by the way, for those who don't know what that means, it merely means...Keep It Simple Stupid!  But even then, the meaning was something other than what I deem appropriate at this juncture. 

It's taken seven years...OMG, seven years today, May 14, 2000 was my first day on disability...to not only appreciate the word simple but to embrace it and understand the complexity of its full meaning.  Understanding the simple life has truly been an uphill battle for me.

My first memories of my life are ones of effort and challenge.  Not just learning to walk and talk but building a strong mind and body so that I could make a "good" life for my family and myself.  That it was up to me as an individual to make a good life.  Oh how I wish in retrospect that I had yearned for a simple life rather than the "good" life.  Or that someone had explained to me what a true simple life entailed and how it could fill your soul with simple pleasures.

This brings me to a couple of "points to ponder" and I'll leave you with them.

Ponder #1...Today I have a nice home, a dishwasher, a washing machine, a dryer etc., etc., etc. just like most every other American.  I also have an RV, two dogs, a cat and the means to enjoy my grown children, my grandchildren and great grandchildren.  Does that have a bearing on my understanding that the simple things of life are the true pleasures of life?  If I didn't have, shall I say these luxuries would I have a different perspective?  Could it be that just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is the simple life and/or simple pleasures?  Is simple defined by individual situations?

Ponder #2...I also have something else that I may not have incurred, or at least not have incurred until much later in life, had it not been for the stress that accompanies the never ending struggle to "better oneself"...to embellish the simple life.  Though the scientific community is still stumped as to the cause of Parkinson's, it is certain that stress is a catalyst to the disease.  Are we as a society literally bettering ourselves to death?  Is it time and if so, is it possible to redefine the simple life and simple pleasures?  And in doing so, begin a new era of K.I.S.S.?

Ummm, points to ponder!