It was a busy week, - here, there and everywhere
but now it's Monday again and a brand new week
with sunshine and showers
forecast and nothing terribly pressing.
Oh well, is anything really very pressing anymore?
When I came home from church yesterday, and after I had had a bit of lunch
I stretched out on the couch where the sun's rays were warm and bright (with the cat)
and picked up Anne Lindbergh's 'Gifts from the Sea' which I had put out to re-read.
And I remembered when I had first read it, back in the 50's.
What an amazingly wonderful time it was! Family, husband, community,
a new orchard, sheep, great quantities of friends
- veterans on a DVA project, poor but excited with a new life.
All of us squashed into tiny houses which was all we could afford to build at the time.
And the children! Big ones at school, small ones at home.
Charles so fantastically busy, and life stretched on forever and ever....
That is when I really appreciated 'Gifts from the Sea' -
when each day was a great kaleidoscope of
fragmented activity and distractions,
and there seemed little or no time for meditation or inner stillness.
And yet when I look back at what I was reading and the opinions I remember having,
it couldn't all have been a domestic mishmash....
Now it is a time of great nostalgia,
and quiet moments of reflection and meditation are an important part of my life,
- in the music I play, the books I read (and re-read), the photography of still life I indulge in,
- an hour spent spinning, my time in the garden.
As I read Anne Lindbergh's words
and follow her search for simplicity and stillness
I think about centering and contemplation
and I think perhaps I have reached that time in my life when this is a possibility.
But it comes at a price.....
And I still have all that 'STUFF' to dispose of
before I can truly live the pure and simple life......
but more about that later!
Is there anyone who would give house to this lovely pot my sister
bought for me, years and years and years ago....
