~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
I wrote about it the first time.
I mean, I'm happy for you to do whatever you want with this idea. I always enjoy your posts.
Me, sometimes when I read people's arguments about what exactly we -- people -- should be doing here -- on earth, I get anxious, and that feeling that I'm doing it all wrong starts to creep up the back of my neck. My hands get sweaty and I experience palpitations. My eyes get a little googly. Most of all, everything seems drab and wrong and dirty and unfortunate. I can see Walker Percy looking at me with his knowing, slightly sad eyes, watching me spiral off into the ether.
I experience discontent.
It's because I'm comparing myself to everyone else and finding myself wanting. But the truth is, today, here, now, there is nothing for it but this. I can make things better, I can make things different, but if I don't embrace the here and now and the this, I will have literally nothing.
It makes me think of when I was young, reading each book with each successive heroine, wanting to be like her. Gradually it occurred to me that the girl in book A was spunky and loud and made people laugh with her tossing of her dark hair, and the girl in book B was quiet and understanding and people took note of her once she had died. Hm. Even to me it became clear that you couldn't be both.
These girls were mutually exclusive! They cancelled each other out! You would appear to be an insane person if you tried to be both! Besides, you can't make yourself die! Not while being spunky!
In a moment of unusual objectivity -- for a child and for me -- I surmised that it was the particularity of each girl, even if contrasting with that of the other, that made her endearing -- not any one attribute. More -- it is the author's loving gaze at the particularity that makes it endearing. When you stepped away from the story, you could even imagine not liking the laugh or the soft eyes if you looked at them a certain way. Maybe that much admired spunky gal in the book is someone we know who makes us a little crazy in real life! Maybe that's why some people don't enjoy some of those books!
Never mind that. It's this particularity that we need to find in our own place. These people who make us happy, these pretty things, these funny animals, and especially our very own real realities -- find them and learn to look at them in a way that makes them part of our contentment, part of our way of loving and being devoted to the here and now, which comes directly from the hand of God.
I needed to put the real in there most of all. Suffering is part of the bargain. I like to think that you get that when we post a pile of laundry, or a sick child, or a shoelace caught in the beater bar, we are acknowledging to each other that things can get to us -- but it's that wink in the falling dusk -- we'll keep on!
{pretty}
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| A little cake, in my 1/2 bundt pan that I found at a yard sale, on a little plate ditto -- just enough for weekday lunch desserts! |
{happy}
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| Bridget's painting the gazebo, a structure that is both somewhat lurching (you can't see it from this angle) and also dauntingly sturdy. Might as well paint it. The drying drop cloth on the trampoline signifies gutters cleaned, which is a happy thought after those rains we had. |
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| Picking herbs from the new herb garden is indeed making me happy. |
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| Drying them in my yard-sale dehydrator. It's so easy, and so appreciated in the winter months. I'd like to grow some medicinal herbs next year! |
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| Take much more fresh sage than you think -- at least 3 cups -- and fry it up in olive oil or bacon fat. Just put enough in there to simmer the leaves on a lowish heat, slowly -- for about 10 minutes or so. |
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| They will get crispy -- stop them before they get brown. Just crispy. Toss the whole thing, fat and all, with pasta and shredded Parmesan cheese. A wonderful side dish, and I guarantee you will wish you had used more sage. |
{funny}
I'm really enjoying reading all the comments on the Picky Eaters post. I will revisit that (and answer some of the questions in the comments), I think, because one thing that's funny is that people who don't have picky eaters are sort of like, just serve crudités!! Hahaha, know what I mean? These are people with regular old children. My children ate crudités too. All six of them. And then there was... Bridget. She eats crudités... now.
Hence the post.
But lots of good thoughts there; raw veggies -- why not. Worth a try.
{real}
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| This lace was good and stuck, there at the end, although it looks like you could just pull it out, right? Well, the Chief could -- I couldn't. Why do I do this most times I vacuum near shoelaces? I always think I can get away with not bending down to move shoes. I could even just kick them out of the way! But, sadly, no. |
