Simplicity of Village Life

It’s been said that more than 20,000 thoughts run through an ordinary person’s mind throughout the course of a single day.  I’m pretty sure the same number of thoughts run through my mind in a single hour.

I think too much.

But there’s nothing my hyper-active mind loves more than the simplicity of village life here in Armenia.  When I tell my host mother that I appreciate life in the village, she says, of course you do, “Գյուղի կյանքը շատ ավելի ազատ է, – village life is much more free.”  She explains that in the village, you do what you want and you get what you need.  Beautiful.  

Her reply focuses on a freedom from demands, from all the pressures and frenzy of a more hectic society.  Indeed, there are for more chickens than there are demands in the villages of Armenia. 

In the middle of a noisy and enervating school day, I retreat into the fields and the mountains beyond my village every day for a run.  To get to the unpopulated territory, I pass through my village where everything has been slightly dicolored by dirt, clothes dangle from their lines, and every five minutes (seriously, it never fails) there is a faint rooster’s crow in the background.  

The village ducks, chickens, turkeys, cows, horses, sheep, cats, and dogs along the way toss me their glances as I run past them and then scurry away to continue their business of scouring for crumbs in the mud.  The air is dry and the sun somehow always beats down through a blue sky onto my village, transforming the moistened dirt into mud and my fair skin into a very scarlet shade of red.  

The only thing better than my daily run is a trip to the village church.  It's a church the size of a tool-shed, but its presence can be felt for miles.  It’s a sacred place designed the way that I think a church should be designed:  simple, open to anyone at anytime, and an ideal space to quite yourself and worship. 

On the way to the church yesterday, my host mom shared some interesting insight with me in beautiful Armenian phrasing: she told me never to worry about tomorrow, because “վաղը չկա,” meaning there is no tomorrow – only today.  She also told me to “ապրի այսօրվա կյանքում,” which is basically Armenian for "seize the day."  

Simple, easy to remember, and extremely profound.

During this busy phase of my Peace Corps experience where I find myself having those 20,000 thoughts per hour, I’m challenged to press through the noise and simplify.  

I’m challenge to ապրի այսօրվա կյանքում – to live for today.  

Weekly grape: How can I simplify my day?