Lonely Cottage

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  “Among the few features of agricultural England which retain an appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries, may be reckoned the high, grassy and furzy downs, coombs, or ewe-leases, as they are indifferently called, that fill a large area of certain counties in the south and south-west. If any mark of human occupation is met with hereon, it usually takes the form of the solitary cottage of some shepherd. Fifty years ago such a lonely cottage stood on such a down, and may possibly be standing there now. In spite of its loneliness, however, the spot, by actual measurement, was not more than five miles from a county-town. Yet that affected it little. Five miles of irregular upland, during the long inimical seasons, with their sleets, snows, rains, and mists, afford withdrawing space enough to isolate a Timon or a Nebuchadnezzar; much less, in fair weather, to please that less repellent tribe, the poets, philosophers, artists, and others who “conceive and meditate of ple...

Cut Back On The Costly

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“So, concerning the things we pursue, and for which we vigorously exert ourselves, we owe this consideration either there is nothing useful in them, or most aren’t useful. Some of them are superfluous, while others aren’t worth that much. But we don’t discern this and see them as free, when they cost us dearly.” (Seneca, Moral Letters, 42.6)

Those who accumulate do not count the cost. Not the material cost but the personal cost. Some people have the talent to get things free of charge and a cost still remains. Whatever you store in your closet, shed, attic or heart, ask yourself: 
  • Do I really need this?
  • What is this actually worth? 
  • What is it costing me to keep? 
If you let go for peace of mind, then you do what is right.