Wishes for a good enough 2014

Today marks the real New Year: the first Monday after the holidays that is the start of a full work week.

I wish everyone a 2014 that is good enough.

The concept of enough deserves to be honoured more. Many green voices are already clamoring for a lowering of material expectations. About time. 
And: the insanity of the economic system with its demand for endless growth has spilled over into the psychology industry. There the demand is for endless self improvement. Look at the stream of self help literature and exhortations to seek out life coaches and counselors. The psychology-industrial complex.

Could we all relax and be content to just muddle through? Could we consider ourselves happy enough? Self confident enough? Actualized enough? Beautiful enough? Spiritual enough? Fit enough? Good enough as parents/spouses/friends etc?

Humanity is facing a tough period. Recession my foot. We are looking at a restructuring of the global economy, as well as a time of environmental upheaval. It is not going to be easy any time soon. The least we can do is go easy on each other and let go of feelings of failure if life is not one big glittering achievement. 


May we all be kind and live in gratitude for our daily bread. 

A lovely Saturday, and a question: conscientious or crazy?

It has been ages, I know. Life has been hectic here. I am working on a longer update but meanwhile, just this snippet.

I come home from a leisurely Saturday morning in the village. This was the big book and bake sale at the library. I dropped off some Focaccia loaves as my contribution and was supposed to help out at the bake table. Since the other lady was quite able to run the place solo, I loaded up on a huge box of delicious books for a ridiculously low price. Now we have to find room for them. What is the book equivalent of 'your eyes are bigger than your stomach'?
Then I checked out the adjoining rummage sale at the museum, which shares a historic building with the library, and lucked upon two items. A brand-new toaster oven, and a super nifty spice rack with 20 jars. After that I made my belated way to the market to hang out with friends over coffee, and checked out the Thrift store, just in case. Scored  another perfectly good pair of petite pants.
All this while basking in the summer warmth. Not too hot, not too cold, just right and I am loving every blessed minute I am out in it.

So now we get home. And I decide to organize the spices right away. By this time I am hungry, have butter fingers and end up spilling a few tablespoons of peppercorns on the counter, which is already littered with other spilled aromatic substances. I grab  dust pan and a cloth. And the peppercorns talked to me. "Do you realize how precious we used to be? Don't you remember that Columbus was  searching for a better route to the Spice Islands? Do the words doldrums and scurvy no longer mean anything to you?" And I ended up picking most of the peppercorns up Juan Valdez style, one by one.

So I ask you: was this conscientious, or just crazy?