‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free

’tis the gift to come down where you ought to be

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

to bow and to bend we shan’t ashamed

to turn, turn will be our delight

’til by turning, turning we come round right.

Traditional Shaker hymn

‘Tis the gift to be simple…

…not simplistic. Simple isn’t ignorant: simple is seeing the essence, not getting distracted or captured by superfluous add-ons. Simple should not be mistaken for easy.

In graduate school, most of the assigned books were poorly written and the lectures often full of unnecessarily obscure vocabulary. I often wondered whether the professors remembered that the purpose was to foster the learning of others rather than to make their students feel unprepared and incapable. What should have evoked joy and wonder – the luxury of learning and pondering how such learning could make this time and place more blessed – usually didn’t.

The gift to be simple is the gift to not oversimplify or over complicate – to see things clearly and to share that vision with others without fuss or condescension. It is to realize that the truth of the cosmos is written in nimble poetry more often than stilted prose.

To be thankful for the gift to be simple is to stop trying to hide the fullness of self – and to stop running from the enormity of this God created and God related cosmos.