You probably figured out I get caught up on one or two blogs a day. Yesterday it was High Desert Home. I found myself nodding in agreement over and over.

From Simple Beauty at Home:

A home, no matter how simple, should be warm and inviting. There should be life and energy, laughter and fun, creativity and joy there. While there should be that peace that comes from order, it is dispiriting to think we need to maintain perfect order. My aim is to live simply enough that disorder or caring for too many things won’t tyrannize my peace of mind or pleasant rhythms or steal the hours away from my relationships

In streamlining one’s life and possessions, beauty and style are not being rejected. Rather, the “beauty of the few,” as Anne Morrow Lindbergh described it, is being embraced.

On work:

Work is good for me. It is good for my home. It is good for my family. And it does bring peace and rest and lightness of heart.

On routines:

A simple, but disciplined, daily routine is a nice scaffolding for keeping all of the work and activity of my days relaxed, pleasant, and orderly-enough. And since I tend toward overstimulation, distraction, and maybe even a bit of laziness, this is important for me. When I stray too far from my routines (these are not strict schedules), I increasingly seem to flounder in the areas that matter most– personal spirituality and life in community.

One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. – Anne Morrow Lindbergh