I just read something that resonated with me deeply.

It was about a culture that described the older generation as "living lightly" so as to leave "something of worth" to the next generation.

I LOVED that because I want very much to live lightly....much more lightly than I do.

My kids think it means I just wanna' live cheaply; they love to tease me about it.  One of them just said that the only reason I didn't sell the table at the lake was that I didn't want to buy a new one.

But that isn't true.  I haven't sold it cuz' I LIKE it.

Just like I like sitting at the chairs and the table that Joe brought home from someone he worked with when we first married...

... and having my coffee in my Grandmother's rocker and serving dinner at the cottage from Joe's grandma's ironing board and...and....and....

Those things MEAN something to me and they are still very useful so WHY buy more STUFF?

I mean, how much stuff can I have?  ANYTHING else is TOO much;  the word NEED should absolutely be eliminated from my vocabulary in relationship to STUFF!

BUT, it is a challenge to 'live lightly' in our culture.  There are just certain brands and styles and looks and places that one MUST buy, wear, do, go....

...which is why I DO understand when teased about my penchant for Dollar Tree or the dress I just bought at Dollar General...BTW, it's a Bobby Brooks...LOL!

You see, I 'get it'.  THIS is the culture I live in.  I don't want to be an out of date ol' granny.

 I certainly don't want to be an embarrassment to my children.

And constantly hearing my personal STUFF struggles is just plain annoying.

So, how do I balance that awareness but still attempt to live the way 'the God in me' nudges me?

Because that nudge comes from a very deep place rooted in 66 years of life experience.

I was raised lightly because that was all there was left to do;  to 'live lightly'.

LIVING LIGHTLY is DEEPLY ENTRENCHED in me.

I married early without money so I took those lessons of childhood into adulthood with a partner who agreed.

After raising our children in a way that they might feel and maybe was TOO lightly, we began to intentionally use some of the money we had to see corners of the world that others lived in.

That really messed with 'the God in me'.

And it continues to do so.

Happened this week as I sorted water shoes at the lake and couldn't figure out what to keep and what to toss and what to pass on.  Having seen the shoe less kids here, there and everywhere, it killed me to have all these shoes, just to use 'at the lake'.

One of my kids said I had to "let it go" cuz' I wasn't WITH those kids.

                                                           I KNOW but?

JUST!  BUT?

I guess that is why "live lightly'  resonated with me;  I KNOW that I do not "live lightly' enough.

I know that I do not when I go to all the places in the world I have been where people have no choice but to "live lightly".

It embarrasses me.

Plus, I want to live lighter so that there WILL be something of worth left for my children.

So, I shall continue to plug away at my piddly way of living lightly.  Dollar Tree stuff.  Dollar General dresses.  Grandmother's rocker.  Wedding table and chairs.  

                                                        Nana's ironing board.

                                                      .

                                                               FREE FUN!

I can, at the very least, share SOMETHING with this generation while, hopefully, leaving 

"something of worth" for the next.

Maybe living lightly can be one way of simply loving.