Simple Birthdays

My brother came down from school for his birthday last weekend. It was his 21, a big milestone birthday in this culture. We didn't throw a big party, we didn't go on a pub crawl or out partying. (Though admitedly I was more than willing to take him out to the pubs -you only turn 21 once, after all, but he didn't want to).

Instead, I cooked a big birthday dinner with all his favorite foods. Turkey cheeseburgers. Roasted root vegetables. Sweet potato fries. Steamed greens. And for dessert, instead of a cake, I made his favorite -banana cream pudding. And then we watched a movie. For the rest of the weekend we hung out and went to the bookstore and arts center.

That was it. Nothing fancy, nothing lavish. And -it worked. It was fun. It was wonderful. Voluntary simplicity doesn't mean not having any fun, or living an austere life. It just means redefining your definiton of 'fun'.