Sun, Dec 2nd - 12:05PM

New beginnings

It has been a long time since I wrote anything.  We bought a fixer-upper house last fall.  I have been too busy fixing it up to do anything else except eat, sleep and work.  But we were able to move in last week.  This will be a new beginning for us.

My up-coming project will be to turn the dessert soil around us into an abundant garden.  I know it can be done.  I have done it on a small scale before.  It will be a lot of hard work to break up the hard-pan, add soil amendments, lay out the irrigation system, etc.

But today is my day of rest.  With all the hard, physical work I have been doing I have decided to take Sundays as a day of rest, literally. "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.  Thou shalt do no work in it."    I can think, I can dream, I can snooze or sleep.  God made a day for our bodies to catch up on itself.  So that's what I'm doing. 

And I'm dreaming of the garden I'm going to plant.

Mon, Oct 23rd - 11:13AM

Book Review

A fellow author has written a book review for me.  It warmed my heart to read it.  I'd like to share it with you.

Thu, Oct 5th - 2:49PM

PRIORITIES

Priorities

A famous person once said that you can do anything you want, to but you can’t do everything you want.  You have to choose which you will do at any one time.

I wish that were not true.  I wish I could do half a dozen things all at one time and do them well.  But I can’t.  I have to make priorities.

Self-care is one of the top priorities.  If I don’t take reasonable good care of myself, I can’t do anything else at all.  I used to do everything that other people expected of me without regard to my own needs.  I’m growing away from that.  Now I can go to bed at night with dirty dishes piled in the sink if my body demands rest.  I still don’t like to do it but I have learned that in the long run such conscious neglect is doing me good.  After a hard day of work out on our country property, the kitchen chores can seem insurmountable, but the next morning the work gets done in a snap.

Fri, Sep 29th - 6:39PM

It's our 44th anniversary today.  I had almost forgot about it.  We have been so busy with many other things.  My husband did forget about it 'till I reminded him.  He asked me what I wanted to do.  Neither of us was really in the mood for much.  After a few suggestions we hit upon our special treat for the day. 

We decided to go to that world famous Irish restaurant.  It starts with Mc.  Usually there are golden arches around it.  Does that mean there is a pot of gold at the end of the arches?  You guessed it.  We went to McDonald's for hamburgers and french fries.  While some might laugh, it is special to us because we almost never go out to eat.  I usually cook everything from scratch, rather than using anything ready-prepared.  And also, when we were young and could not afford anything else, McDonalds was our only treat.  It was kind of nostalgic. I hope to look forward to at least twenty more visits to McDonalds.

Wed, Sep 27th - 11:18AM

The Silence

I’m reading a book, “What We Ache For,” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.  It’s about how to cultivate the creative process.  Any author, artist, musician, or sculpture needs to nurture the creative process in order to come up with new material.

One thing that Oriah has said I have also found to be true.  A creative person needs empty time in order to recharge.  She periodically takes a Sabbath of rest.  It can be any day of the week, but when she declares a Sabbath day she will do no work, nor make commitments of any kind to anyone.  She won’t even think about problems and possible solutions.  She will spend the day doing absolutely nothing. 

Lately, we have been using Sundays as a Sabbath of rest.  Since we will be moving out to our country property as soon as things are done, we have quit the church we went to here in town.  We are too exhausted from all the hard labor to go the new church up there so we stay home and do nothing but rest, read, pray and recuperate.  For the present time this is right for us.

I read somewhere that the Quakers routinely practice a day of silence.  I imagine that means that members of a household don’t talk to one another that day.  How blessed, I expect nothing of anyone, and nobody expects anything of me!  I wonder how that works out with young children in the family?   Still, it’s a good idea.

Originally, when I signed up for the writing course I am currently taking, I was expected to write one devotional a day.  That sounds nice, but I can’t do it.  In order for me to come up with worthwhile stuff, I need to spend much time in silence.   Lately, there has not been enough of that time, so I write one a week. 

I should turn one of my blogs into a devotional page.