7 minute read
SIMPLE TIMES
TRUE JOY
BY SUZY McCRAY
Tiny wisps of gray hair escaped from underneath the scarf tied in a knot behind her ears as the woman poured water from a cup onto her husband’s outstretched hands.
He patted some of the cool water onto his wrinkled face before turning to her with a toothless grin and dancing eyes that lit up their yard, and which was reflected in her smile as she handed him a worn rag of a hand towel.
“I’d live on the side of a mountain with no power and no running water too if you’d look at me like that,” I kidded Mack as he sat beside me on our cushy love seat in our comfortable house.
We don’t watch regular network TV except for Mack’s beloved football games. Instead, we watch old westerns, homesteading videos and all sorts of other things on YouTube. After church we relaxed with a snack and turned on the screen. I’m not sure how we wound up with that series of videos, but we sat mesmerized through four videos of folks completely around the world from us.
The old man in the first—he probably wasn’t any older than the two of us, but circumstances probably enhanced his age!—but he and his plump wife radiated true contentment and joy, although their tiny oneroom cabin hanging precariously on a hill side was a far cry from the lap of luxury.
But that couple, and the other folks we watched, radiated pure joy. It reminded me immediately of the saying that I quoted at the beginning of my fourth book, a collection of my Simple Times articles from the last two years.
It states simply: Happiness is based on circumstances; true JOY comes from the Lord!
We couldn’t understand a word of their language. But we watched as the man scythed grass from an adjacent hill side and fed two fat cows and a calf in a wooden shed. The wife carefully walked down the other hillside to a lush garden to pick abundant and colorful vegetables including peppers and onions which she returned to the house to sauté on a wood-burning stove that eclipsed one corner of their cabin. He sat down to eat on the corner of their bed which joined one side of their wooden kitchen table and she sat on a small stool, and they truly enjoyed their vegetables and a loaf of homemade bread which they pulled apart with their hands.
The views from their hilltop were magnificent and it seemed they were in the area in which the Czech Republic, Ukraine and other countries scatter through the hills.
Another video showed yet another couple in what was called the Crimean area, who appeared to be a little “better off.” While they had no running water in their house, they did have access to a water spigot from which the woman carried water to a giant pot sitting atop some rocks and a steel plate in their yard.
As the water began to boil, she filled gallon and half gallon jars one third full of muscadines or another red berry, then dipped boiling water from the cauldron, mixed in sugar and then poured it in the jars over the berries. She used a twisty hand tool which I’d never seen before to seal the jars as the fruit turned the water into brilliantly colored juice.
As the husband brought more wood for the fire, the woman, man and a boy of about ten enjoyed a pot of tea of some of the juice along with a loaf of crusty homemade bread.
That video ended later with the couple sitting on a board stretched between the ends of an iron bedstead outside, which made a beautiful but rustic seat. As they woman swung her now-bare feet they enjoyed yet more tea as they relaxed, and their day drew to a close.
A woman they said was aged near 90 lived alone in another secluded hillside cabin. She was first shown moving the picket for a sleek young steer. Then picking vegetables from another lush garden. She chopped some sort of large-leaf vegetable to feed her chickens and pigs and scattered scratch feed to her chickens, including a mama hen with about ten chicks.
Lastly, she sat on a stool and wrapped part of a wool fleece around a tall stick. She then began spinning their wool using a drop spindle with motions so effortlessly it was hard to tell how the yarn wound around the wooden spindle. When she had spun a large ball, she began doing everything in reverse, as she plied the wool into a two-ply yarn with which to knit!
She moved a mama cow and calf which were staked on an opposite hill from the steer.
She then stirred the cream back into the milk in a glass fruit jar before pouring herself a cup to enjoy at the end of the day on her hillside.
The only video with subtitles was of another woman in her 90s living alone. Her first words to the camera were “I’m a believer.” She also went about her chores throughout the day and ended with nightly prayers at midnight when she finally tumbled into the bed which sat in the corner of her tiny home.
Only one of the four homes we watched had electricity and that home featured a tiny microwave and an ancient-looking TV in the corner. None of the homes had running water inside so there were no inside restrooms. All four had wood-burning cookstoves for their main source of cooking and likely also for heat as there were cords and cords of neatly stacked firewood under small roofs of tin in their yards.
These were current videos. The last was filmed in July 2023.
I’ve thought all night and day about their simple joy as they went about their lives. Their days would be what so many of us would call “hard.” They fed animals, did other chores, brought in wood, cooked, cleaned, washed clothes, swept porches, and seem ingly kept busy every day. But every day there was a time of reflection as they sipped their tea or enjoyed their homemade bread.
They enjoyed each other’s company. They petted and played with fuzzy dogs. One couple shared tea with what was likely a visiting grandchild.
They didn’t have the newest tiller or tractor for their gardens, but they were lush and prolific. (One of the single women was shown harvesting a large patch of potatoes with a special hand-held hoe and wound up with about 10 bushels!)
They weren’t checking the internet for the latest news, only listening occasionally to battery-powered radios.
Their animals were sleek and healthy, providing meat, wool, eggs, milk, and more, without any modern amenities at all.
They were all well past age 70, but all were scam pering up and down the hillsides regularly as part of their ordinary days, with no need of gym member ships.
But what stood out to me the most was the pure joy from everyday events.
The sunrises, the sunsets, over their hills and mountains. The scampering of month-old puppies or The constant cheep cheep of baby chicks following their mamas.
The look in a husband’s eyes at the end of a bone-weary day. The woman’s simple prayers to God as she asked for nothing more than restful sleep and a healthy awakening.
Would we have to have a severe disaster to take us back to those simpler days? A time when we enjoyed the everyday things God gives us without always wanting more of this and even more of that.
Can we survive one day without social media? Without our cell phones?
Where ARE our priorities? Where IS our joy???
In the Bible, the words “joy,” “rejoice,” or “joyful” appear 430 times and “happy” or “happiness” only 10 times.
Happiness DOES depend on circumstances (and is only temporary) but true JOY comes from the Lord!
“These things have I spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11
(Suzy and husband Mack live on a homestead in Blount County, Alabama and can be reached on Facebook or by email at suzy.mccray@yahoo.com)
