Monday 21 February 2022

Small and Wonderful Things . . .

 

 


"The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But who gets excited by a mere penny?...It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. what you see is what you get." ~Anne Dillard


A few of the small and wonderful things which bring untold joy into my life. It's the small things in life which truly mean the most. Simple abundance . . . it's the best. 


  
 


I love this and look at it often. Esther was a beautiful Jewess who was chosen to be the wife of the Persian King Xerxes and leads a daring rescue of her people from an attempted genocide. Even though God is never directly mentioned in the book, it still shows his faithfulness behind-the-scenes as the Jewish people are preserved.  When things get hard, or when I have hard days, this thought just helps to get me through.  You never know when your example or your experience is going to help or inspire someone else to live their best life.  If you can be a positive example for others, nothing is in vain.


 
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Life is full of beautiful things.  We are such amazing creatures, we humans.  We can create devastation with our actions, but we are also very capable of creating things which are amazingly beautiful.  Can you imagine what a difference it would make in the world if people concentrated their efforts more on creating beauty and positivity rather than the opposite?  Oh how I wish  . . . 



 


Its getting to be that time of year when we are coming to really dislike the snow. We are tired of it I suppose.  Beneath the snow however, everything looks so dead and blah  . . .  I am reminded that I need to do so much work in the garden, that I am not really capable of.  I have no garden tools and cannot really afford to buy tools.  To be honest, it all just wants pulling up and discarding.  I cannot take care of it.  Especially in the back.  I would just like it all pulled up and grassed in.   I can see where the snow has broken the little white picket garden border all to bits and knocked it over. I cannot be bending over and dealing with it. I may have to ask the missionaries to come and help, but I know they have more important work to do than that. 

There is so much needs doing here.  I still have a garage filled with cardboard that needs bundling. I get so tired when I am doing it, and out of breath. I know  . . .  I am in bad shape.  👀  But I am still here, and that is a blessing.  I just wish my arthritis was much better than what it is. Most days I am aching from head to toe and everywhere in between.



 


I am grateful for all the love in my life.  For my sister and Dan, Dad, my brother and his family, for my sons Anthony and Doug, my daughter Eileen and their families.  My friends, my faith, my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  My kit kats  . . . .  I am blessed.

Unconditional love is the greatest of all gifts. 

I am grateful for the times I had to spend with family over the past week. For meals with loved ones and bread broken together.






Covid has touched our family. I dare say it will touch all families before it is through.  I pray continuously that all will be well  . . . that they will be well. Anthony messaged me yesterday to say that Luke has it and that he and Anne were not feeling so well.  So far Gabe is okay, but he lives in the same house so it is probably only a matter of time.  Thank goodness we have all been vaccinated.  Anthony hasn't had his booster yet, but I hope and pray he will be okay  . . . I think the schools are a hot bed of the virus.  Covid is not a small thing. Its not a wonderful thing, but prayer is and so I pray, and pray, and pray  . . .  





I have been enjoying watching the figure skating in the Olympics. I do not know the names of the skaters, or the countries they represent  . . . I am just lost in the beauty of what they do.  These are all the world's best at their art and I am amazed at the talent and in awe of all the hard work that goes into all that they do, the training,  the sacrifice, etc.

I so enjoy it. My mother always loved to watch the figure skating also. When I was a little girl I would have loved to take figure skating, or dance lessons, piano . . . our family did not have a budget for those types of things. Most didn't. 




Bottle caps.  Of all the toys I have bought for the kit kats, they enjoy bottle caps most of all.   A bottle cap in an old shoe box keeps them occupied for hours until it escapes the box and goes under the television stand  . . .  
 



My birds are back where they belong.  I locked the kit kats up  in the bedroom and put my glass birds back up again.  It makes me very happy to see them back in the windows  . . . 


 


Each morning I put the Tabernacle Choir (Choir at Temple Square) onto YouTube on my television and their music embroiders my days. I just find it all very restful and soul inspiring. Its a very good thing.  I don't have a radio or a music player so YouTube does it all for me.  What a blessing that is.  We live in an age of technological miracles.  I am grateful for all of them.

My life is not the most exciting life these days. I fear it becomes more boring with every day that passes.  I guess that is most lives.  Simple. Ordinary. Every day.  I would rather that than to be constantly on display.

Good music, love, faith, friends, family  . . . health, pets  . . .  these simple things help to make an ordinary life beautiful.

A thought to carry with you  . . . 


° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ | 田田 |門 ★

 *.˛. "The cup of tea on arrival at a country house 
is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. 
I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, 
the scent of buttered toast, 
the general atmosphere of leisured coziness."
P.G. Wodehouse  •。★★ 。* 。•。★★ 。* 。

 


Chicken Soup with Pastina. . .  That's what's cooking in the kitchen today.  Simply delicious.

I hope you have a beautiful week ahead of you, filled to overflowing with small and wonderful things. Be happy. Be blessed.  Don't forget . . . 

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And I do too!


4 comments:

  1. As an outsider looking in..your life doesn't seem boring:)
    I bet the missionaries will help with the gardens..if they are a chore do ask for them to grass in.
    A garden is a source of great joy but it can be very overwhelming...

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  2. Lovely to see the birds back up, spring is coming. Nothing wrong with asking for help, the worst answer is no, but do ask.

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  3. I do love those birds you have in your window. What a difference they make. Yes we are all tired of the snow and of the covid too. I too pray a lot. I like to think that when I cannot see my children, I hug them with my prayers.

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  4. I do love your thankful heart. We do have so much to be thankful for. I wish at times for a more calm life, but I have graterful to just keep going. I do know how you feel about yardwork. We have the same kind of problems. Neither my husband or I have the time and some health issues that make it hard to keep up with our very large yard. The first year of Covid, my husband spent hours in the yard and it was beautiful. Then he got assignments in the temple that he doesn't have the time at all. I don't know how we are going to figure that out.
    I do pray your family gets through the Covid OK. At least it is milder with the vaccines. A number of our family has had it too and I'm grateful it wasn't too bad.
    I love the bottle cap idea for your fur babies; that's a good one.
    I too, love the skating in the Olympics. The moves they make are unbelievable at times. It is amazing.
    I'm very excited for spring. I did hear some birds singing the other day. There is hope that spring will come soon. However, we still need water. We are in a terrible drought.
    Blessings and hugs!

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