As Good As It Gets

  Occasionally, someone will ask just why I live like I do.  "How can you stay on the Bayou everyday and not go places?" is one of the questions that is thrown my way on a regular basis. Folks obviously think living here is a bad thing.  Perhaps it is to others but it suits me just fine.  People question my lack of "modern conveniences" like air conditioning and central heat units.  They question my raising a garden and catching most of our food.  They question everything from my clothes, my craft clutter, my antique furniture, the dusty books on the shelves and my habit of adopting any stray animal that comes to the Bayou.  Personally, I do not care.  It is none of their business how I live my life.  I do not pretend to fret over their lives and I wish they would just ignore mine.  It does make me ponder, though, just how empty others lives must be if they have to "fix" mine with their suggestions, hints or their unsought advice.

  To my way of thinking, I live in a small piece of paradise.  I awake to the most beautiful music of birds singing, I tend the garden and get to watch the miracle of life spring from the soil, and I am lulled to sleep by the sound of waves gently rustling in the marsh and frogs serenading me from the pond.  I fish when I want, eat healthy, homegrown foods and have the liberty to create pieces of art when the whim strikes me. Instead of exhaust fumes from cars and factories, I breathe the aromas of jasmine, wisteria and magnolias.  I am not stressed by media overkill of every happening of a world that I cannot control.  In other words, I am happy just how things are.  For those who cannot understand the Bayou life, I have just a few words.  You have not found peace in your own life if you have to give unsolicited advice to others in how to change theirs.  

  Yesterday morning, I was sitting in the garden reflecting on just how amazingly wonderful things are.  Blessings abound to those who can see them.  I am where I want to be. I have found my peaceful place.  Have you?