Simplicity

Dear Kajijs,
Last Friday at Newcastle Commons was such a perfectly beautiful day for our first Kajiji Girls of the season! Our small group enjoyed the food, sun and view of the sea while our children ran around the grassy lawn, climbed the rocks, dug in the sand, and watched the cool practice rescue maneuvers performed off-shore by the Coast Guard. It’s always so refreshing to take a breather from our busy lives and spend it with each other in fellowship.

Speaking of busy lives…last season’s Kajiji emails were centered around the vital importance of friendship. I feel led this year to address the gift of simplicity in our lives - as in leading a slower, more meditative spiritual life as opposed to the frenetic pace we set for ourselves and our families. In Freedom of Simplicity, Richard Foster states that “[Simplicity] is a call given to every Christian. The witness to simplicity is profoundly rooted in the biblical tradition, and most perfectly exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ…In simplicity, we enter the deep silences of the heart for which we were created.” I would love it if any of you have thoughts/contributions to this ongoing discussion via email. If you have a great book on the subject to recommend or even some helpful tips to help us all simplify our lives, it would be appreciated.

Most of us live to a staccato beat, pulled and jerked from one role to another.
I have come to believe that one of the crying needs in me and in our culture
is the need for silence and solitude.

- Gloria Gaither

Crystal