A couple of years ago, my now 8 yo son asked how long in terms of "how many tomorrows".  Now, he asks how many days.  It was a cute, but fleeting phrase.  These are moments and concepts to hold.  Likewise, our concept of various things matures with age, practice, example, and circumstance.  A world prone to material lust is contending with curtailing, and reaction ranges from thrift to fear to madness. 

We're in the midst of enclosing our patio area.  It started 2 summers back as an attempt to cover the swamp cooler with some shade to lengthen its days of service in the heat of the hot Nevada summer.  It became a covered patio later in the summer, and a nice place to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner a year ago.  This year, it has advanced, and is mostly closed in.  Hubby worked hard this weekend to get a portion of flooring done, and the Christmas tree now adorns the rough area.  The vision of what is would doubtless cause some to roll their eyes.  To me, it is exciting and comfortable.  Simplicity is, perhaps, easier to embrace when you have experienced it and found it not so terrible as the world might portray.  There is an exciting pioneer type feel to such an environment.  And the imagining of what it may become is a huge portion of the fun!  I really don't yearn for a fancy decor or frivolous things, I'd rather just enjoy the solitude of a bright starry desert night from the open space outside, and the slight chill of the unfinished room as the children dance about the pretty tree with ornaments non-uniformly placed! 

These are moments and concepts for the youngsters to hold.  If I hadn't grown up in the beauty and quiet of the desert, perhaps I wouldn't appreciate it now.  I hope they get something special out of the experience.  I hope our nation gets something important out of the storm it now is weathering, an appreciation for living a little more simply, an awareness that luxury may fill a tree, but rarely fills a heart.  A realization that Christmas is about humility and humbling and doing without, as He who came set aside His Heavenly glory and comfort to associate with more humble creation.  He did without so that for eternity, He would not need to do without.  He gave up His very life, and we have gained for all eternity the glory and riches of Heaven, the amazing beautiful existence we cannot even begin to imagine in full!

Praying that this would be a blessed season for all, and that simplicity and cutting back would be, not a curse, but an abundant blessing!