Ideal Life

Daily writing prompt

If you had to describe your ideal life, what would it look like?

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Isn’t this a challenging yet simple inquiry! I’ve often envisioned a few paths in life, varying between a traveling nomad and a happy little homesteader. For this, why don’t I focus on the homesteading, as that’s been the foundation of my most recent considerations?

When I picture the ideal life, I see a cabin of both traditional and modern construction near a stream. I like the idea of a log cabin, but I haven’t lived in one. It was something I wanted to experiment with when I taught Henry David Thoreau and Transcendentalism. Yet my cabin should retain some contemporary facets like running water and a bit of electricity (off grid is just dandy!).

Waking up with the woman of my dreams next to me, with just enough time to whisper sweet nuthins’ before the rugrats invade our bed. A day of tending chickens, repairing a fence line, and spending time with my family. Oh! And writing too! Gotta be writing! I picture a natural life with focus on happiness, hard work, and forming little humans to be well-produced adults.

I’d be very happy with a couple of acres. Enough to raise the food necessary to live. Enough space and time to manage a small business or two that creates the income to survive and pay taxes. A community of close friends also seems wonderful, everyone pitching in with the skills they have.

A lot of this has to do with space. Yet, here I am living amongst good friends. Perhaps I’m already living an ideal life. Every day, I offer gratitude. Every once in a while, I forget to appreciate the vast blessings set upon me. The ideal life is difficult to articulate. We are always searching for more, especially for the green grass on the other side. If we turn around occasionally, we’ll see the green grass we just stood on. Moving forward, I acknowledge my desire for land. The community I already have.

As Andy Bernard from The Office once said: “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”