A kitchen is a common thing -- thank God,
But so are stars and hills and golden rod;
Nothing more common on the earth's vast span
Bu just an every-day old fashioned man.
A garden is a common thing -- I know,
But so are mountains diademed with snow;
A river filled with wonder to the brim,
A bit of woods with shadows cool and dim.
A tall old tree lifting its branches up, --
The awkward playful gambols of a pup,
A newborn lamb whose wool is white as foam,
A tired child mouching along toward home.
An old man dozing o-er his evening pipe,
A tree with apples rosy warm and ripe,
Tall waving grass in a neglected yard,
The tender greeting on a Christmas card.
A kitchen is a common thing indeed,
And so are fields and planting time and seed;
A furrowed headland where a nuthatch sings,
We thank Thee Lord tonight for common things.
~Edna Jacques, A Kitchen is a Common Thing
Hills of Home, 1952
The kitchen was always the heart of my home. I have always spent a lot of time in it and I have created a lot of love in it. Back in the day whenever a visitor happened by they would be invited in for a hot cup of something and a piece of cake or a cookie or summat. We would sit at the kitchen table and pass the time of day. Games, played over the kitchen table of many a night. Children's parties. Family meals. Catalogues poured through. Lists made. Dreams, etc. My kitchen was where it was at through all of the years of my life. A simple room. A common room. But so filled with love and memories. I wish I had an "eat-in" kitchen now. Not that I get many visitors these days. I think Covid changed a lot of things. I think people got out of the habit of socializing and people got out of the habit of being socialized. Its a pity that.
I am a great lover of common things. Nothing needs to be special to please me. I much prefer the simpler things in life.
This room reminds me in a way of an attic bedroom my sister and I slept in when we visited my mother's Aunt Melva in Saugus, Mass. one summer. Oh boy but it was hot as hades up there. Our brother got to sleep in a downstairs bedroom with our parents, but Cindy and I were relegated to the attic. It was nowhere near as bright as this. I remember being quite sick during the night. It was probably heat exhaustion.
That was a nice visit for my mother when I think back on it. She loved her Aunt and Uncle very much. They were a connection to her late father, being his sister and brother-in-law. (Who also happened to be cousins to each other. That happened a lot in those days.) They lived in a pretty little house, which was larger to us than any house we had seen and had a lovely garden. I thought everything was so fancy. I remember we had a terrific thunderstorm one night when we were here, or maybe it was the afternoon. Perhaps the skies got so dark it felt like night.
My great Aunt had a parrot, and a huge eat-in kitchen. I had spent my whole life in military housing so anything outside of that always felt larger than life and very elegant.
I loved the small town feel of the place and the American flags hanging everywhere. It was all very exotic to me, which seems a bit silly now.
Cats. They will drink the water from anything you don't want them to. When I am painting, it is a hard chore to keep their noses out of my water jar. They are so funny. If they are not trying to bat the end of my paint brush or pencil, they are trying to drink my dirty water. They do get tired of it after a while and go lay down somewhere, but the first fifteen minutes or so is always a battle to see who had the most stamina and who can put up with who the longest. I guess you might call that a battle of wills.
I don't mind really. I do love them so and they are great company. They love me too. It is a love/love relationship. Those are the best kind.
"When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful
feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body
responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel.
~Harold Kushner
I have made it my goal in life to practice kindness. It's been my goal for a very long time. Sometimes I do really well at it and sometimes I could do better. Most of the time however, it is just second nature . . . like breathing. Giving up my spot in the lineup at the grocery store to the person behind me, and maybe even the person behind her/he who only has one or two items. Letting that person in the car on the corner who has been waiting for ages to be able to turn go. Giving others the benefit of the doubt and a bit of grace, because, like me, they are only human. I have made it a habit if someone is on my mind, to call them and see how they are, pass the time of day. (God put them there, in my mind, for a reason.) To never ignore a prompting and act on it, no matter when or what.
Most of the time it costs me nothing but my time. Kindness really is its own reward. Not only is it good for the world, but it is good for our own physical and mental health. The wonder drug many are looking for, with an abundance of positive side effects. And it's free.
We have had some beautiful summer-like days this past week. The bees they be buzzing. The hummingbirds humming. More people have been out and about. Walking, visiting, sitting on their front porches enjoying the sunshine. Gardening. The world really does come alive in the sunshine.
All the world seems right when the sun is shining, or at the very least a tiny bit more tolerable. I suppose that if you live in a place where it is sun shiny every single day you might start to take it all a bit for granted. But I don't think I ever could.
I remember when I was getting ready to move to the U.K. someone told my youngest son, that it was a horrible place to live because it rained too much there. My first year in the U.K. was the wettest year on record. There were floods all over the country. It rained literally every. single. day. I kid you not. Some days it was just misting rain and others torrential rain, but it was always there. I learned that people do not melt in the rain and that you could not stay home just because it was raining. We did not have a car and so out I went, every day in the rain. I had no choice. I got used to it.
There is nothing to help you appreciate a sunny day more than living in a country where it rains almost if not every day. I learned to love the rain. I learned to love the sunshine even more than I ever had.
One of my favorite childhood memories is of standing under the overhang of the garage roof to stay dry while the sun was shining brilliantly and yet a cloudburst was shooting rain down in abundance. I can remember holding my hand out to cup the rain and capture it. The smell of wet pavement in my nostrils. Sun showers. Magical. They last literally only minutes, and the pavement is dry within minutes of their stopping. And you got to witness the gift that it was and experience the magic.
I constantly remember you in my prayers.
~2 Timothy 1:3
I am a praying person. If I tell you I am keeping you in my prayers or that I will pray for you, then you can believe that I am and will. Praying for and on the behalf of others is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to them. I have been blessed to have been on the receiving end of the prayers of others, and I can tell you that it made a huge difference. There are times when we are in bad shape because of illness or life circumstances and we need the prayers of others to hold us up and encourage us.
I have a list of people in my mind that I pray for every day. Some days the list is longer than others. Some people have been on my list for a very long time. Some may even always be on my list. But I will keep praying. I believe that God hears our prayers and that He answers them in His own timing and in His own way and always for our benefit. We may not always like the answers we get. Sometimes the answer is no, or not yet. Some answers we may not see in this lifetime, but the answers will come. I know this to be true.
It is a great privilege to enter God's presence and intercede for others. It is a great gift to be prayed for. Prayer, it is always a good thing.
Ha ha, this could be my two, except that mine have much longer hair. They wait for me to return the whole time I am gone and whenever I do return, they are right at the other side of the door from the garage into the house. I can always hear Nutmeg meowing before I even open the door. Ready for a sniff and a scratch behind the years. It is good to be missed and loved in that way and to have someone waiting for you to come home to . . . to greet you upon your return. I always take the time to acknowledge them when I come in, to let them know that I missed them too.
I saw the cutest video of someone rubbing the tummy of a baby tiger yesterday. The baby tiger was purring and enjoying it very much. Not yet the dangerous predator it will become.
It is hard to believe that we are heading into the latter part of May already. My two oldest grandsons are finished school for the year. Jon will be graduating on the 20th from his course at Holland College and Gabe has finished his first year at Uni. He is not planning on going back. Apparently, he did not enjoy it at all, so this summer will be trying to figure out what it is he wants to do. I think there is only another 3 to 4 weeks of regular school as well. I am looking forward to my brother's visit later this week. He will be here for seven days. I may not get on much while he is here, but that's okay. You can know that I am enjoying his visit.
I went to the Nurse practitioner yesterday and am on a strong anti-biotic now. Hopefully I will see some improvement soon. If at the end of the course of antibiotics there is no improvement, then I may have to go and have the sores lanced YIKES! Not high on my list of things I want to happen, but you have to do what you have to do. Hopefully the antibiotics do their job!
I had hoped to get a lot done yesterday but in between waiting for my appointment and then waiting for my prescription to come through, I was exhausted by the end of it all, so not a lot got done. Today I am going shopping with Cindy. We always enjoy our excursions out together.
It's the finals of the Eurovision contest tonight. I always enjoy.
And with that I will leave you with a thought for the day!
° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★ *.˛.God spoke today in flowers,
And I, who was waiting on words
almost missed the conversation.
~Ingrid Goff Maidoff ° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
In The English Kitchen today. Maple Pecan Cookies. Very delicious. Very nice. A lovely weekend treat!
I hope that you have a great day today. May it be a day filled with love and with light. Whatever you get up to, don't forget!
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And I do too!!
.JPG "Small Batch Peanut Butter Cookies")
