Sunday, February 1, 2009

Simple Gift by Elder Joseph Brackett

During this economic melt-down, are you afraid to down grade?  Will you lose face if you don't have that latest branded handbag or shoes?  Or will you be embarrassaed to move from a condo to an HDB flat.  I once read an article about a young man who everyday would remove his HDB season parking ticket before he leaves the HDB car park for fear of being found out that he has downgraded to an HDB flat.

The lyrics of "Simple Gift" is as follows:
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.
This song from the Shakers community has been a strong influence and it has proven time after time to save me from a lot of potential trouble in life. When you learn the art of simplicity, no matter what life throw you, you are still on a firm ground. You will not feel the ground disappearing from under you.

What does it mean to be simple and free? My interpretation of the song may be different from the Shakers', but basically to me it means to simply be your authentic self without any pretense or trappings that are not congruent with your true self.  Unfortunately, we live in a noisy world where ideas of who one should be are often defined by the media.  

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your last sentence is very true. It's even worse here in Indonesia, esp in Jakarta. Who you should be, what you wear, and where you should go (for vacations) can greatly be influenced by your relatives, your extended families, your friends. They think that you should wear more fashionable clothes (cause they think you can afford it), or that you should travel overseas or at least to Bali for vacation). It happened to me a lot of times. Most of the times, I can ignore them or just smile politely. But once in a while, I can't help but wondering if I've done the right thing. I'm lucky to have a better half who supports me to be just who I am. Anyway, I've always admired your simplicity Fit. Don't change!
KATRIN