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For Your Enrichment (and FUN!)

Contentment
by Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Man wants but little here below."

LITTLE I ask; my wants are few;
I only wish a hut of stone,
(A very plain brown stone will do,)
That I may call my own;
And close at hand is such a one,
In yonder street that fronts the sun.

Plain food is quite enough for me;
Three courses are as good as ten;--
If Nature can subsist on three,
Thank Heaven for three. Amen!
I always thought cold victual nice;--
My choice would be vanilla-ice.

I care not much for gold or land;--
Give me a mortgage here and there,--
Some good bank-stock, some note of hand,
Or trifling railroad share,--
I only ask that Fortune send
A little more than I shall spend.

Honors are silly toys, I know,
And titles are but empty names;
I would, perhaps, be Plenipo,--
But only near St. James;
I'm very sure I should not care
To fill our Gubernator's chair.

Jewels are baubles; 't is a sin
To care for such unfruitful things;--
One good-sized diamond in a pin,--
Some, not so large, in rings,--
A ruby, and a pearl, or so,
Will do for me;--I laugh at show.

My dame should dress in cheap attire;
(Good, heavy silks are never dear;) -
I own perhaps I might desire
Some shawls of true Cashmere,--
Some marrowy crapes of China silk,
Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk.

I would not have the horse I drive
So fast that folks must stop and stare;
An easy gait--two forty-five--
Suits me; I do not care;--
Perhaps, for just a single spurt,
Some seconds less would do no hurt.

Of pictures, I should like to own
Titians aud Raphaels three or four,--
I love so much their style and tone,
One Turner, and no more,
(A landscape,--foreground golden dirt,--
The sunshine painted with a squirt.)

Of books but few,--some fifty score
For daily use, and bound for wear;
The rest upon an upper floor;--
Some little luxury there
Of red morocco's gilded gleam
And vellum rich as country cream.

Busts, cameos, gems,--such things as these,
Which others often show for pride,
I value for their power to please,
And selfish churls deride;--
One Stradivarius, I confess,
Two Meerschaums, I would fain possess.

Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn,
Nor ape the glittering upstart fool;--
Shall not carved tables serve my turn,
But all must be of buhl?
Give grasping pomp its double share,--
I ask but one recumbent chair.

Thus humble let me live and die,
Nor long for Midas' golden touch;
If Heaven more generous gifts deny,
I shall not miss them much,--
Too grateful for the blessing lent
Of simple tastes and mind content!

posted by Colleen @ 6:18 PM 3 comments

Questions, questions.

What for you makes life worth living?

posted by Colleen @ 6:27 AM 3 comments

My Adventure

Today was a day of adventure. I'd decided to go hiking on the trails of the farm I lived on as a kid. The place has changed quite a bit but underneath I can still see the framework of what I remembered.

I began by parking at the entrance to a field just off the road. As I walked through the field, I spooked a hen turkey and some grouse from the underbrush/trees along the road. Then a tom flew out from one of the trees. I knew I was probably scaring them, since I could hear them keeping ahead of me in the brush. Then the tom came out of the brush, running through the field to the creekbottom area. I believe he was trying to lure me away from the hen to save her. I didn't hear a peep from the hen in the underbrush. I just kept walking and looking straight ahead - to the head of the trail at the creekbottom.

The trail was quite overgrown, so I got scratched a bit from the wild roses and almost fell off the wood walk which covered the wet areas because of the tall ferns blocking my view.

I also have never walked these trails so a couple times I had to ask the LORD which way to go so I wouldn't get stuck somewhere or lost. I went by the pond which was just as I remembered it, overgrown with cattails. When I came out of the marsh, I was at the back side of the field I'd started out from.

Walking west along a two-track for a bit, I then entered a trail through a red pine forest. It really wasn't a trail, I just walked into it. I went up the gentle rise and found I was on the south side of the crescent of the big hill. As I topped the rise and looked down the other side, I saw the grassy center of the crescent. Opposite the major part of the hill on the edge of the field was a small pavillion with a picnic table and a firepit with natural benches around it. A collection of wood for burning was to one side of the pavillion.

I then moved on to climbing the sandy portion of the hill. Funny - it doesn't seem as tall as I remembered it but the climbing in the sand was the same - like climbing a sand dune. It is still quite high and I worked up a sweat getting to the top. Lovely, a bench right at the top to rest and enjoy the view. The view wasn't as impressive as I remembered because of all the trees in the way, but I could still see far off across the countryside through some gaps in the trees.

I then walked along the top of the hill to check out where we used to sled in the winter - it was so tree covered that it didn't look like much anymore. I had a lot of fun sledding down that hill!

Then I walked back along the crescent of the hill, down to the two-track leading to the pavillion, and back to the back side of the first field where I started my adventure. To my surprise, a doe appeared out of the woods and meandered across the field, grazing as she went. She was injured in her right front shoulder/leg and had an obvious limp. She seems to be getting along though. Then I walked along the two-track beside the field back to the car.

After that, I stopped at Country Dairy Deli & Store and had a wonderful nutty chocolate ice cream cone. Did you know that Country Dairy doesn't use any growth hormones on their cows? I think I'll buy their products because of that. All in all I had a great day! If you want to see a picture/story of my adventure, check it out on my picture blog - MY PHOTO ALBUM.

posted by Colleen @ 7:12 PM 4 comments