Relieved!

After discovering a hole in the sleeve of my favorite and very old, vintage jacket,
I decided to apply a patch to extend its use a little while longer...

I'm relieved and delighted to be able to wear this jacket again.
(I have NO idea how long this patch will hold...
I'm no stitcher!)

Living and Giving (Up)

Sometimes you get to live the dream... 

sometimes you give up the dream and pass it on to another...

Today, when I transport my friend to the beauty salon,

I will pack these two books

to give to her hairdresser

who I've come to learn lives in an old house in the country.

As much as I have enjoyed the "dream",

I realize it is not realistic at this stage of my life.

And so, I pass on the "fuel" to another.

***

This is a HUGE life lesson for me.

Something that I am slowly learning

and beginning to put into motion

in quiet, simple ways.

Pottery-loving People

On Fridays, I drive a friend to her hair appointment.

The salon is just up the street from one of my favorite thrift stores.

Yesterday, realizing I had very little cash in my billfold,

I almost read a magazine instead of checking out the shop.

I'm glad I went anyway.

I found this mug and spent twenty-seven cents for it!

"I have a hard time passing up pottery at bargain prices,"

I wrote on my Facebook page this morning.

Soon, comments were added to my post.

"Earthy, natural beauty."

"...something so 'real' about pottery."

'Midst the stream, I noted,

"It's interesting how pottery-loving people find each other!"

***

I'm thinking it's similar to genuine Christ-followers

and how they "find" each other...

Now It Begins

...and after Thanksgiving,

more to come.

Simple, though.

Absolutely and Especially

 We made time to

walk a local trail yesterday.

 I posted photos on my Facebook page.

"Still you find beauty with foliage and plants 
readying for their Winter naps!" 🍁🍂

a friend commented.

"Absolutely!" I responded.

Looking back on my reply to my friend later,

I wished I'd responded with a DIFFERENT word...

ESPECIALLY!

Yes!

ESPECIALLY I find beauty with foliage 

and plants readying for their Winter naps!

Don't you?!?

Contrasts

I accidentally posted the story

behind this photo on my other blog.
I'm too exasperated/impatient to repeat it here.

Suffice it to say,
THIS day was quite a contrast to the Pony Parade experience!
Contrasts are what make life interesting.
Routines are what keep it sane.
I do life best with a balance of both.
At MY stage of life, I'm finding it takes more routines
to balance the contrasts....

All the Time

She (to me):  You see beauty in "everyday" things.

Me (to her):  All. The. Time.  Yes, I do!

There's NO beauty like God's!

What I Didn't Photograph this Week

• Myself at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo (but then again, I was behind the camera...)

• Crowded table at Tuesday morning coffee
• Beautiful countryside seen during evening drives
• The impressive Kendallville Public Library
• McClish Lake on a quiet wwekday
• My friend's remodeled lake cottage
• Scenes from Hidden Figures, a movie I really enjoyed
• The cover of Middlemarch, the lengthy but entertaining book I'm reading
• The corn on the cob a friend just gave us

Life is good!

Sheep May Safely Graze

 I know.

I've turned quite rural on you!

Pastoral, even...

Definition:  adj.(especially of land or a farm) 
used for or related to the keeping or grazing of sheep or cattle.

"scattered pastoral farms"

 Even in music I enjoy "Sheep May Safely Graze" (Bach)

when playing weekly duets with Donna

and "The 23rd Psalm" on my ukulele.

 Actually, we DO have a few fields of sheep around our small town,

but they are quite a ways off the road which makes it difficult

to get a good photo.

Meanwhile...

Sheep may safely graze and pasture

Where a shepherd guards them well

So the nation ruled in wisdom

Knows and shares the many blessings

Which both peace and plenty brings.

just ordinary stuff

"Nothing special; just ordinary stuff"

were the words I used to describe the day I anticipated

when messaging our two daughters this morning...

Opening my twitter account a few minutes later, 

I found these lines from a Robert Burns' poem:

And O! may Heaven their simple lives prevent 

 From Luxury’s contagion, weak and vile! 

Then, howe’er crowns and coronets be rent, 

A virtuous populace may rise the while, 

And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov’d Isle. 

("The Cotter's Saturday Night")

 And in response I pray:

Keep me simple, dear Lord.

Ordinary in my sight

immune from Luxury's contagion.

Virtuous, rising, and above all to stand...

A Perfect Day For...

A trail walk before the heat of the day...

 admiring wildflowers...

 hand-holding...

 breaking old habits (like crossing one's legs)...

 doing something practical to meet the needs of another person...

staying current with one's plan to read the Bible through in the year...

 day-dreaming a bit...

 finishing a book...

folding a load of white wash...

Warriors of God

I'm sure our fine library had to send someone

deep into the stacks to find this book for me--

but what a treasure!

After reading an essay (also by Walter Nigg) about St. Francis of Assisi,

I began reading THIS book.

I wish I owned it!  

I would be underlining and making other comments and marks

in its margins.

Quotes such as these challenge me from the chapter about the first "warrior"--St. Anthony.

"A pandering to the crowd spells mortal danger to Christianity;

Anthony pointed to the remedy.  I a Christianity of the crowd there ceases to be

any genuine relationship between God and the soul,

which, if it is to be real, must be personal."

And..

"The flight of the hermits in the age of Constantine was a movement

from the outward to the inward, a preserving of the content of religion

from the canker of superficiality, 

a withdrawal from futility into the center of being." 

What book(s) do YOU wish you owned?

And why?

Simple Stuff

 Simple stuff is what makes up our days...

I've been reading.  While the men in the house watch some basketball,

I have been enjoying this book (recommended by SOMEone).

I look forward to finding and watching an old British television production

about this remarkable woman living a most solitary and hard life in a remote place.

 This is the most recent puzzle that we completed.

Dad helps find the border pieces; husband works at the bulk of it.

I work best when alone - so finished the last 25-30 pieces while the men

were away.

 I said good-by to this sweet pair.

I'd listed them long ago on a Facebook page and actually had forgotten I'd done so!

Someone saw them and asked if they were still available.

They were.  Now I've decluttered two more pieces.

And we celebrated my sister's birthday!

Her husband was in Africa, and her daughter had to work.

She (my niece) asked us if we'd take Suzie out to eat,

and of course we complied.

Suzie didn't know WHO was coming to pick her up at noon,

so we shouted, "Surprise!" when she opened the door.

...Simple stuff make me happy...

 'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free
'Tis a gift to come down where I ought to be
And when I am in the place just right
I will be in the valley of love and delight
When true simplicity is gained
To bow and to bend I will not be ashamed
To turn, to turn will be my delight
'Til by turning, turning, I come 'round right.
(An old Shaker song)

Taking Stock

Here it is!  Mid-March already...

I heard birds singing as I washed my face and brushed my teeth 

at my upstair's bathroom sink this morning.

Winter is passing. Quicker this year than last, it seems to me.

Why my thoughts wandered to June and our upcoming retreat

 to The Abbey of Gethsemani, I don't know.

But they did. 

Wistfully, I opened its web page and caught up with a few of the monthly happenings

there since the first of the year.

January found the monks themselves retreating.

Somehow, this brought me comfort 

and heightened my expectations and yearnings for my own retreat!

Marked by silence and simplicity, this was a summary of the retreat:
On the individual level, monks were encourage to discern
what they needed from this time of extra quiet and solitude.
For some, that may indeed have meant some rest.  
For others, it was a chance to simplify.
"For all, it is a time of taking stock," Dom Elias said.
...Sigh...
Today, in a smaller way, I too will seek to be silent.
To be simple and
to take stock.

A Feat Fit for February

A recent chat with a Facebook Friend

stimulated this adventure for me.

Throughout the month of January, Nancy has been 

daily discarding or donating items

according to the numerical date.

One for the 1st

Two for the 2nd

and so on.

I had my dad (in his spare time) figure out how many this would add up to in 31 days.

Actually, I forget now.  But it was well over 500!

I decided that I would do this for the month of February.

Beginning tomorrow.

Already I'm scheming.

Chomping at the bit, actually!

I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to continue this

for March and April, too!

(And I'd STILL have things to get rid of...)

***

What do you think?

Could YOU do it?

Doors

 "The richest life is always found in the humblest place

and daily disciplines are doors to freedom."~Ann Voskamp

I am finding this place
 and these doors at every turn these days.

My life IS rich,

simple,

slow

and free.
SO thankful for humble places and daily disciplines. 

Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child [resting] with his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me [composed and freed from discontent].
O Israel, hope in the Lord
From this time forth and forever.
Psalm 131:1-3 

Working Out

 "Love is WORKED OUT in lives of intimacy and care 

among the people in our families and neighborhoods and workplaces." (Eugene Peterson)

"Doing life together" is a term we share frequently with each other 

since my father has come to live with us.

It happens in a variety of ways--

most of them quite basic, very simple, and oh so daily...
(Thinking how THIS "workout" is not so unlike effective physical workouts....
basic, simple and oh so daily.)

Little Things to Do Today

"Little things to do today" was a line I journaled early this morning.

It was followed by a list that expanded as the day went on:

clear landing

select/sign cards for R, F, and S

plants watered upstairs

make Do Nothing Cake 

look for that little crock for S

While searching for two little things include in a birthday gift for a friend,

I found several little things (dollhouse furniture and accessories)

that needed repair.  I asked my father (who agreed) to fix them

Then, I proceeded to take care of other little things

and found myself with time between the last little thing

and the time my husband returned home for lunch.

Opening the refrigerator door, I found more little things!

These mustard packets - collected over a period of time.

So I did yet another little thing WITH little things.

Snipping the ends off of each packet, I emptied them into a larger mustard container.

Later, after lunch, I checked my Facebook, emails and Twitter.

There I found this quote by Alicia Britt Chole:

Obedience in small things is a big thing to God's heart.

D'ya know what?
I've not run out of little things to do today AND I'm finding great satisfaction in doing them.
My little things are adding up!

Christmas Cutouts

For many years, these cutouts from a magazine insert

lay in a cubbyhole of a vintage desk of ours...

Unsure of exactly how I'd ever use them,

they remained flat and forgotten

until I discovered them a couple of days ago.

I handled them fondly

(almost reverently)

as I searched for a place for them.

 Our small, sparsely ornamented white tree

seemed like the perfect spot.

Maybe next year I'll place them in an "orphaned" stable

from an abandoned nativity set.

For now, these simple cutouts serve as silent reminders

of several things I've cut out of our Christmas activities and decor

to accommodate the changes and realities in our life and family

as well as to honor Him whose birth we celebrate.

How about you?
Any "Christmas cutouts" at YOUR house?

Sane, Simple and almost Sacred!

My last living uncle died last month.  

My cousin sent me a bunch of photos found while sorting through things in his father's apartment.

This is a photo of my father and mother.

When I showed  this one to my dad on Sunday, he said, "I think I still HAVE that shirt!"

We turned the photo over to see the date -

 "Surely not!  Maybe one really similar!" I suggested.

Monday morning he showed up wearing THIS shirt...
He didn't say a word.  Waited to see if I'd notice.
I did!  Right away!

A Van Heusen.

I left a message with the Van Heusen people on facebook.

Minutes later, they responded:

Hi, Rebecca, That's great!  Glad your father still has his shirt,

it looks great on him.   --Team Van Heusen

My father has worn many good-looking shirts in his eighty-nine years...

maybe none as long as THIS one.

 I just read on  Freude and Freuden that Ralph Lauren once said that things made for a specific function must get better with age.  So, Menno van Meurs said,  "I believe you should invest in
things that last because that way, you can enjoy them your whole life."
Apparently that's my father's philosophy - and not a bad one!

 Because at the end of the day, we don’t actually need that much. Buy less, pay more.
(Menno van Meurs)