New View

The temperature is hovering at around 13C this morning, but I am all tucked away in a shallow rock basin beside the bunkie stairs, sheltered from the breeze. You can tell there's very little wind here, because my close up today is of tiny blooms that stayed still.

It still feels coldish out here, though, given the hot summer we've had so far (not to mention Thailand). But I am determined to spend more of the day outside than yesterday, when the sun didn't really make an effort until after lunch, keeping me inside all morning.

In an arrangement made months before we knew what our closing date would be, others are renting our cottage for the week. Without a home to return to in KW, which is what we normally would do, our next best option was to experiment with actually living, not just sleeping, in the bunkie.

It's only about 300 square feet, and there's no real kitchen per se. That's plenty of room as a sleeping cabin, which is and remains its main function. But, it's been a bit tight to live in, especially around making meals and washing up afterwards.

Never mind. It's something of a fun challenge to see if we can make this work. And we figure that if we can do it here in 300 square feet, our new build of 625 square feet will feel like a palace.

It's been interesting to notice the effect downsizing has on my inner world; my perspectives, my expectations, my needs vs. wants, my levels of contentment. Externals tend to shape internals and also the other way around.

If I'm honest, some of that shaping feels more like squeezing, and I am noticing how much my love for having my personal space 'just so' affects my mood. This has been as much an experiment with contentment as with anything else.

Paul found his way to an impressive level of spiritual maturity in this regard. I dug into this a little in one paper I wrote about the Apostle, particularly in regards to how he experienced 'status inconsistency,' which is part of this but not all, and better left to another conversation.

But having experienced such a wide swing of living, from being mistaken for and worshipped as a god, to being dragged out of the city and beaten as a rabble rouser and heretic, he was able to find an anchoring point of identity that remained unchanged regardless of his situation.

Philippians 4:11-13
I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little...Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

Whatever, wherever, in Christ.
A rock solid identity to live into.

That's more than just a stoic stance on contentment. Personally, I'm finding it's going to take way more than just my own will power or character development to navigate the smaller physical spaces in order to grow me into wider spiritual horizons. Way more.

And just now, as if to bring me into the present moment and lighten up things a bit, a chipmunk has come by. Since he didn't come up close and ask me for breakfast, I'm assuming he might be a new friend I can try to get to know. Gotta' go get me some peanuts.

If I can remember where I put them.