Frugal makes life more peaceful

Your host posted this on Craiglist's Frugal Forum this morning and received many positive points. That feels good. But, one of the replies was "sweet. got a blog? Should consider it." Thank you, "thebig50"

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We live outside the city, no streetlights. I woke up this morning when the sun had just barely started poking up. I could see shadows and nothing more. In this peaceful stillness, I put on a few layers to ward off the chill and padded to the kitchen. Sinkwater from our well, into the small glass carafe. We have a very small butane-powered single-cup heater and I lit it. The butane flame is a dull blue, and just barely added any light to the kitchen. In that gentle lighting, I put the filter in the cone and scooped the right amount of coffee and set it on the cup, ready for the water once heated.

I got the old-fashioned bulb thermometer from the living room, brought it into the kitchen and read it by the light of the butane burner. 58 degrees. It felt a shame to break the perfect darkness and silence, but if my sweetie was going to appreciate me today, I would have to start warming up the house. Still in the dark, I loaded the wood stove with the right amount of kindling and two smaller easy-to-ignite logs. I used a little LED flashlight briefly to make sure no bits were hanging out...that would be a fire hazard. Lit the stove, closed the door, it goes on its own when loaded correctly. Just as I closed that door, the refrigerator came on...amazing how loud a fridge is when you're enjoying still perfection.

We keep fruit in wooden bowls on the counter top. I chose the usual selections and made up my sweetie's morning breakfast, as the sun rose a bit more. The fridge turned off, and now the only sound was the gentle crackle of the wood stove.

In a moment more perfect than anything Hollywood could turn out, my sweetie came out of the bedroom, wrapped her arms around me, and we heard the first chirping of the morning birds. We just stood there, enjoying the perfection of calm and peace, without the jangle of phones, without the background noise of a radio or TV, without any computers turned on, with the birds being the vocal witness to our contentedness.

I poured the water, it drained through the ground coffee and I handed the cup to sweetie. It wasn't for me, after all.

I love mornings. It's my only daily escape from Civilization, which Mark Twain defined as "The limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities."