The Beauty of a Simple Life

For those of you who follow me on Twitter/Instagram or Facebook already know that I just returned from a two-week trip to Uganda, Africa. My second daughter, Hannah, is living in Uganda and working with Watoto church and as a mama, I just needed to go see her (haven’t seen her in 8 months) and to “put my eyes on everything”.We had such a great time and I’m going to spend the next few blogs telling you all about it!My oldest daughter, Hillary, my sister and I embarked on a 26-hour journey to Uganda, Africa. We’ve never been to Africa, so to say that we were excited is a serious understatement! Upon arriving at the airport in Uganda and watching the baggage carousel for over an hour (it was also midnight by this point!), it became very clear that our luggage had not made it. NOT. ONE. PIECE.I know for all of you professional travelers, I was supposed to bring an extra outfit and toiletries with me on my carry on but I didn’t…I never do...until now. I have learned my lesson! So we left the airport with NOTHING. And the more disturbing news was that they had NO IDEA where our luggage was or when we’d get it or if we’d ever get it. Not a great way to start out a two-week trip, after being on airplanes for TWENTY-SIX HOURS, to a third world country.I slept and wore the same outfit for two days and finally on the third day, went to a store and bought a couple of things to hold me over in hopes that they would eventually find our luggage. Long story short, on the FIFTH day our long lost luggage arrived and we were ecstatic!!It was during those five days without luggage that I learned a VERY valuable lesson that I pray I will never forget...HAVING LESS IS BETTER. How in the world could I throw and fit and cry over lost luggage when I found myself in a country that its people had VERY little and were so content with the little they had?? By day four of our trip, I honestly didn’t care if we got our luggage or not. I had learned to make due with the little I had and realized that a “little” was all I really NEEDED.When we did get our luggage, I opened a packed full suitcase and looked at it and said to myself, “I don’t need any of this”. I had learned to make due with what I had, washing out the two outfits I had in the sink each night and hung them to dry overnight. I was actually embarrassed and convicted by how much STUFF I had brought.In Uganda, there is a beauty in living SIMPLY.The more “things” we have, the more complicated our lives are. The less things we have, the less complicated our lives. My life was beautifully UNCOMPLICATED those five days!! I didn’t stand in front of a closet trying to figure out what to wear. My choices were very slim and not much time was spent on how cute I was going to look!Uganda is a third world country and one of the poorest countries in one of the poorest parts of the world…Africa. No air conditioner in a very hot climate, electricity that came and went as it pleased, food choices that were made according to what was grown in the people’s gardens, but I sensed from the very first day I was there…THERE IS NO STRESS HERE.Less things = less stress. More things = more stress.Not really complicated, is it? The more stuff we have, the more stress it causes. It’s no wonder that America is one of the most stressed out countries in the world!! We indulge in EVERYTHING! Food, shopping, cars, houses, etc. etc. etc.There is real beauty in real simplicity.It would be very unrealistic of me to think that I can come back home and live like the people of Uganda. I cannot even attempt to do that, but I can keep some of the lessons I learned and try to implement them in my life here.“A pretentious, showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life.” (Prov. 13:7 MSG)That’s exactly what I saw, the Ugandan people living a FULL LIFE because they lived a SIMPLE LIFE.I don’t know about you, but that’s BEAUTIFUL to me!