I made a tiny change in my office this week. When we first moved in I just arranged furniture in what seemed like the most logical way. I ended up closing one of the two windows- the one I thought had the worst view- and placing a small file cabinet and photo storage case in front of it. Essentially cut off my access to it. After living in the house for a year, I finally realized that the cool evening breeze would blow through that window if I would just open it! So...yesterday I moved things around. Today I have a new view. I can see our little vegetable garden and the neighbor's pasture. (I can also see an ugly old rusted basketball hoop, but I am now determined to cover it with a vine.) And in the evening I can open the window and enjoy the breeze. And my cat thinks the new window sill is just for her.
I'm often surprised by how the smallest changes in our lives can give us a whole new "view" or perspective. Sometimes it's a physical change, sometimes just an attitude adjustment. We need those changes from time to time.
My work in genealogy has given me a different perspective on many of the things that make us anxious about our daily lives. This week I found a piece from December of 1920 that might give us a better view of our economic troubles.
December 24,1920:
"Oklahoma is all right. America is all right. Times are all right- provided you do not expect too much. We must make a few changes in our scales of living. We must buy less foolishness. We must work more and save more. That is the only remedy. We have lived too high- and must come down. That does not mean that we shall deny ourselves any really good thing. Our schools, our churches, our music and our beneficences must be kept up. But there are hundreds of little things that we can do without. Half the money spent for Christmas foolishness would keep the family for months as a rule."
I watched the video of those homes up north that were washed into the lake. While my heart goes out to anyone who has lost their home, I did have mixed emotions when they said that most of them, including the half-million-dollar one, were vacation homes. Ironic that this week's news also included the touching story of a woman with cancer whose community got together and built her a new home to replace the dilapidated one she and her family were living in. Her friends and family saw a need and met it. A better view...sometimes that's all we need.
Comments