Learning About Life from the Little House Series of Books Written by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Growing up there was never a collection of books more comforting or edifying than that of the Little House series written by the remarkable Laura Ingalls Wilder. The books I still read, going through them with a careful hand and thoughtful eyes, never missing the magic that pours from the pages.

Through the books I became enchanted with times long gone and that fascination burns as bright as it did when, at the age of 7, I opened the first page of Little House in the Big Woods and read with rapt attention.

I learned about simplicity, family values, hard work, faith, and perseverance, which the Ingalls family sincerely possessed.

The books revealed to me that children didn't expect that their lives would be easy or that they would have a right to entitlement. Instead, family was a partnership with everyone contributing.

This was evident when Laura's seamstress wages were given in support to her blind sister Mary so that Mary could attend a school for the blind in Iowa. Laura's personal gain of that hard-earned money came from seeing her sister receive an education that she wouldn't have been able to receive otherwise.

It was also apparent during the long, hard winter of 1880-81 in which blizzards lasted from October through April. A warning was issued, from the most unlikely of sources: An old Indian man who had entered the general store telling everyone that the winter would bring blizzards that would last for "many moons."

He was right, and so intense were the blizzards that trains could no longer bring food and supplies to the town of De Smet, leaving families with little means in which to nourish themselves. The government couldn't be counted on for rescue and relief. De Smet, and her inhabitants were forced to make do on their own, and they did - testament to their extraordinary fortitude.

History notes that much of the town was on the brink of starvation. Laura's mother, Caroline, managed to sustain the family on one loaf of bread each day. The wheat used for the bread was ground into flour using a coffee mill, which was a laborious process that lasted an entire day.

Hunger was rampant and they ached for food and passed the time making fuel out of "sticks of hay." This was a long and tedious process - sometimes physically painful.

Laura's journals tell that relief arrived on May 10^th 1881 when a train of supplies was met by many of the townspeople and that the long hard winter was finally over.

Laura Ingalls Wilder once mentioned, "There is something in living close to the great elements of nature that causes people to rise above small annoyances and discomforts."

Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family faced innumerable adversity but through it all rarely complained while carrying themselves with dignity. They faced challenges few of us will never know, or even understand.

The "pioneer spirit" was a great teacher in showing me that we really don't have it so bad. I often wonder if pioneers would scoff at the complaints leveled by many today. Not long ago Colorado went through two blizzards in a row. Just two, and yet, people in supermarkets were stocking up in a panic wondering if the stores would be shut down for a day...or two.

Unlike Laura's family and neighbors, we have technology and big government to rely on; the latter I'm not so sure is even an advantage.

Laura and her family had to rely on themselves. No matter what roadblocks were put in their paths, they weathered them, withstood the hardships, clung to each other, and paved the way for us to have it easier.