LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE Star Melissa Gilbert Celebrates New, Simpler Life: ‘I’m Just So Blessed’
By Movieguide® Contributor
LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE star Melissa Gilbert shared details about her new book, “Back to the Prairie” and her appreciation for a simpler life.
The actress and her husband, actor and director Timothy Busfield, made a home in the Catskills, leaving Hollywood behind and embracing nature.
“I grew up on a set that was a farm,” Gilbert laughed. “I got to play it out quite a bit and then go to our nice home in Encino at the end of the cul-de-sac with all of our modern conveniences. But I’ve always loved being in the outdoors. I’ve always loved being around animals. I think this was who I always was at my core. I just happened to grow up in urban cities.
“Once we got up here, once we got our land and started to look at all the things we could do with it, and then when lockdown happened, it unleashed all of this stuff inside me,” she continued. “There was a person who was dying to have this [new life]. I still can’t believe this is what my life is like now. It’s heaven. I’m just so blessed.”
Focusing on remodeling the Catskills cottage and tending her garden left Gilbert little time to think about things like plastic surgery or fillers.
“Our lives got very, very simple,” Gilbert described. “Our lives are simple now, and there’s a sweetness to that simplicity. And with that simplicity comes a real love for stillness and living my life in a peaceful place. That means not fighting a natural process. Fighting a process that is as natural as aging is the opposite of peaceful.”
Gilbert’s new book tells the story of her and Busfield’s new life and how they made their mountain cottage a home.
“I hope [“Back to the Prairie”] reminds readers of what we’ve been through,” the actress said. “We’ve been through something extraordinary and here we all are, those of us who are still here. My heart does, of course, break for the hundreds of thousands of people who lost loved ones to his horrible pandemic. But I hope that maybe people will read this and realize that it really is the sweet, simple things that are the best and most important in life… Maybe it will inspire people to be a little more gentle and loving with each other.”