Simplicity

Simplicity in lifestyle often goes hand-in-hand with personal fulfillment. It is not a sense of poverty. Poverty means deprivation or hardship. Simple lifestyle means having personal satisfaction.

Ten years ago, our family packed up and moved to a more desirable geographical setting, one that also provided a simpler lifestyle.

Affirmative action is what got us moved from the Mojave Desert in California to the Midwest. I enjoyed California but there were certainly several aspects of desert weather that were not my preferences. When a medical retirement was given to my husband, it was the opportunity to change our lifestyle.

We simply named off several states we both thought we could enjoy as home base and then, through the process of elimination, we came up with Iowa. Iowa has an excellent school system and we knew our son deserved a good education. We had family within the state. After living on the desert, we were both looking forward to getting back to a geographical area that had four definite seasons.

We took out the atlas. I was familiar with the western side of the state, along the Missouri River. It was too flat for my preference. We did not want to be too far north because of the stronger winters. We did not want to be along the central east-west line because it is known as "Tornado Alley." I grew up spending many a night in the cellar and that was not my preference, either.

We located an area a bit southeast of central Iowa, almost by closing our eyes and pointing on the map. We began sending out requests to various Chamber of Commerce organizations. By sending requests for information about various locations, we found an area that had lakes, a state park and other outdoor recreation facilities that interested us.

We began packing. At first, we made no attempts, other than to get a general idea of the price of homes in the area, to locate a place to live before we arrived. The week before we left California, we decided to call a realtor to see if anything might be available as a rental home. She found one available. We had sold everything that would sell and loaded up the largest U-haul available and headed east.

Neither of us had visited this area of Iowa and I was squealing as we got within fifty miles. There were rolling hills! We began joking, telling Shawn, who was just out of second grade, "Shawn, that's grass! Shawn, that's a tree! Shawn, that's a cow!" Of course, he had seen such on other travels and we did have trees and grass on the desert but they did not grow "wild" like they do here.

We found our "dream home" within a month of living here, which we quickly converted into a Bed and Breakfast. We had discussed these various ideals through the last several years on the desert. Just two years ago, we moved again. This time our choice was to live by a lake. We found our home, just seven miles from where we had been living. I continue with part-time employment, some of which I do in my home. It is a comfortable and simplistic lifestyle.

Other Life Styles:

Preparation

Solitude

Simplicity

Social

Crafting

Love of Nature

Fine Arts

Professional

Travel

Health


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