Mental Perfume
Do you ever feel like you’re living a really bad country song? It seems like just yesterday we were all living high on the hog, frivolously spending and over-consuming. If less is really more then it’s a great time to be an American, since most people have far less these days. Many have been forced into a simpler life, and just like the characters in a country song, they’re singing the blues. But the good ole boys and girls in a country song eventually embrace their situation and bask in the pleasures of their circumstances. Country music isn’t usually about having the biggest or the best; it’s about having just enough. How much simpler would life be if it were like a country song – where we thought just enough was really enough?
Since I was a little girl, I have loved country music. There’s something about the sound of co-dependence wafting over the prairie that speaks to me. It wasn’t so much the beat of the music that appealed to me, it was the story. The words were so real. Most songs are not profound, but there is an overwhelming sense of gratefulness and contentment, which I always found fascinating. People were thankful for so little – the sound of the crickets at night, the way you feel when that special someone looks at you a certain way, the taste of an ice-cold beer. How could people be so happy with so little? I always appreciated country music, but I could never quite relate to it. I assumed the gracious feelings were a result of ignorance. Nobody could possibly be satisfied with the gristle, if they had ever tasted the filet.
Before I met my husband, I never thought of saving for anything in my life. My dad had this great saying about money ‘It’s only money, I’ll make more,’ and I had been living by those words for some time. That might not be a bad rule of thumb if you’re employed, but it wasn’t exactly fitting for my current situation. My husband and I got pregnant shortly after we wed, and decided I would be a stay-at-home mom. If you’re not sure how much stay-at-home-moms make, it’s about zero dollars per year. I get paid in smiles, hugs and poopy diapers, which is priceless, however most businesses don’t accept that type of currency. Somewhere along the way, I realized having less made me appreciate that I did have more.
I put a higher price tag on my most valuable asset – my family. I started valuing my time more. I started hanging out with really good people instead of people that were dragging me down and bumming me out. I truly and authentically appreciated my husband for the man he is, and fell in love with him all over again and felt just like I did when we first got married, only better. I started exercising to feel better, not look better, and ended up looking better than ever. I took time to dance like a crazy chicken with our toddler in the living room to you guessed it – country music.
The warmest season of the year is on its way out, but I would have to say this summer has been 100 percent no-frills, no-stress fun. Unlike years past, my husband and I didn’t drag our kids all over the country attempting to visit every family member, or see every national monument. We weren’t a bunch of camp junkies dragging our offspring to enrichment classes. No, we mostly stayed home. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner on our deck. We biked around town instead of driving. We bought from the farmers market, and ate seasonably and locally for the first time ever. We had people come and visit us for a change, and spent our days swimming, playing and laughing. For the first time in a long time, I felt extraordinarily grateful and humbled. I finally understood those country songs I had been listening to for so many years. Nearly every song ends the same – with enlightenment. With each song’s conclusion there is a peace that is made between the story and the singer. Lessons are learned, and one walks away a better person because they know what ensued and why. Life is not something that happened to them; it was not endured, it was embraced. As I look at my not-so-new house and my even not-so-newer car, I smile. I feel like nobody in the world is as lucky as me. I have enough and I’m happy. I can’t imagine singing any other tune.
