Focus

This is a neighboring village to where we drilled the first well. A casserole of emotions, thoughts, observations gets cooked up when you roll thru a place like this. The impression-order kind of went, "wow, mud bricks. wow, lots of kids. sweet, that woman has a machete. man, this set up is kind of cool." The more obvious and empathetic thoughts of how tough life must be followed. But the pang of envy surprised me. My initial intake was that there was something romantic about this small, tight-knit community that was living, working and playing together. In my simple, naive mind I related it to a Swiss Family Robinson life. The kind of life where your purpose is to survive without modern luxuries. I spent summers in the woods as a kid pretending to live that kind of life.

In the village there was something attractive about the lack of distractions and obvious sense of unity and purpose. They were surviving together without modern luxuries. This weekend, Leah and I are going to my family's lake house with the sole purpose to get away from the "distractions." We need time where our focus is just on each other. No cellphones, no work, bills, fire-restoration or taxidermy. This strengthens our sense of unity and purpose. This morning, I was reading about God telling his people to keep the Sabbath as holy rest days, signposts signaling that he is God, their God. I read that as slow down, eliminate the week's distractions, simplify your focus and rest. Great advice for weekends. But I think what I found so romantic about the village-life was that it seemed like they found a way to simplify their focus seven days a week in their work and play. A strong, tight-knit community seemed to be the result. Whether that's naive or not, it stirs up a good kind of envy. And a strong hankering to build a tree house.