{31 Days of Living Simply} Day 31 ~ Thank You

Well, this is it. The last day of the month of October. 31 Days is at it’s end. Before the month started, I was afraid I’d run out of things to say after day 3. I didn’t. It sometimes felt like I was saying too much and not enough all at once. And now here it is the end of the month and the beautiful thing that I have learned is that this is what I am passionate about. Sharing with others about living simply came easily. Your support and encouragement was great. The best part about this whole month was your comments full of stories and ideas that made me feel so inspired.

I have 4 different versions of today’s post written in draft form. I am apparently not very good at ending things – knowing what to say or how to say it.

In one version I was going to share the stories of my family always telling me I am an old soul – that I love and long for the simpler life of generations past. I know that I am lucky that I can choose simplicity when they had few choices and they had very hard lives. I love thinking of my great grandmothers baking cookies and passing that down so my daughter can make the same ones with me. I love looking at old photos of great grandparents standing in front of the only home they ever owned and lived in forever, proud of their hard work, showing off the gardens they grew. I love that there is only one family home when my parents talk about the places they grew up. We drive down one street and look at one tiny house to see where my mom and her 6 siblings lived. My dad grew up a block over from the place I called home as a child. People didn’t move around as much, not needing to upgrade cars and houses when they added a 2nd child. My parents shared bedrooms with siblings. They tell stories of long car rides on family vacations. One long car ride involved my grandmother buying each of her 6 kids a bag of potato chips at the beginning of the day. All of my dad’s siblings gobbled theirs up. My dad saved his. Later in the day when his brothers were hungry and my dad opened his bag, he sold them for 10 cents a chip to his brothers! Ha! I am reminded how big the little things are when it comes to moments and memories.

Another version of this final post was a lot like this post on lessons in contentment.

Yet another version was full of links like:

Simplify It: Buy Quality
Less is More
Don’t Give Up What You Love
Embrace the unexpected

What I want to leave you with is this, a quote from a post from this 31 Days series that I think sums up entirely with as few words as possible what anyone who wants to live a little more simply should hear: “You want to have more time – stop trading it for dollars. You want to have more space – stop trading it for clutter. You want to have more dollars – stop trading them for things that don’t matter.”

Thank you, so much, for being here this 31 Days with me. I have been overwhelmed with your thoughtful comments and encouragement, your advice and inspiration.

Thank you to The Nester for inviting me to her party series. And a huge thank you to the other 31 Days bloggers who have inspired me this month beyond measure.

Chatting at the Sky, Nesting Place, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, Life With My 3 Boybarians, Reluctant Entertainer, The Inspired Room

I cannot write a post on October 31st without saying HAPPY HALLOWEEN!