All Things Nice . . .

 

(source)

I'll build a stately mansion for my soul

In some vast world beyond the rainbow's end,

Pray God there will be peace and quiet there,

And the dear presence of an earthly friend.

I'll grow tea roses by the cottage door,

And hollyhocks red as a gypsy's coat,

I hope there will be joy and laughter there

And lilting music from a robin's throat.

I'll walk the golden streets (if such they be)

Stop at a corner where the Saints go by,

And listen to the wondrous tales they'll tell,

In that fair world beyond the farthest sky.

I'll hear the harps of heaven softly play

The tunes that David knew when Earth was young,

And hear the Scriptures read and talked about,

By some old Prophet with a silver tongue.

I'll rest me from the ills of common earth,

When from all care and poverty set free,

And as the quiet eons tick away,

Put on the garb of immortality.

~Edna Jacques, I'll Build a Stately Mansion

The Golden Road, 1953

Have you ever thought about what Heaven must be like?  I sometimes have, not that I am in any rush to get there. To be together with all of my loved ones.  Free from pain and sorrow, no tears shed there.  A place of light and color and beautiful music. Peaceful. Serene. No aches and pains. No Wars or arguments.  Just love . . . acceptance . . . no divisions or angst. A place of complete harmony and beauty. And the presence of the Savior. It would not be heaven were He not there. I could have answers to all my questions.  Understand the beginning from the end. Be at peace with everything and everyone.  But best of all be with all of my loved ones dear.

And cake, plenty of cake without any calories.

 

(source)

Love.  I've been thinking about Love.  I may never have found my one true love, but I know what love is. It is selfless and giving, without any thought of recompense. It is caring deeply for another, so much so that you would do anything for them, go anywhere for them, just be there for them any time, any how, any where. It is laughing with, crying with, and everything in between.  Sometimes it is silence. Sometimes it is noise.  It is putting others before yourself. It is acceptance and compassion and understanding. It is helping others in their journey towards becoming better and becoming better yourself in the process.  It is being where you are needed, as you are needed and when you are needed because you would never want to be anywhere else.  It is colorless, without prejudice or judgment. It is accepting others for who and what they are. It is caring, helping, lifting, enduring. It is loss and missing. It is many things to many people.  It is. I would not be without it.

 

(source)

One of the pleasures of Winter is being tucked away, nice and warm, an observer from a comfortable place, snug as a bug in a rug. Oh how blessed I am to have a place to call my own where I am safe and comfortable. Warm and cozy.  Hot drinks at my fingertips.  Nice music to listen to, books to read, cats to fuss over, blankets on my lap. How did I get so blessed when so many are not.  I take none of it for granted.  There, but for the grace of God go I.

 

(source)

Cindy and I have been peddling together each morning.  She calls me up on the phone and then she rides her bike and I get on my cubi and we spent fifteen minutes peddling together. We chat as we peddle and the time goes quickly.  It is better than doing nothing.   How grateful I am for a sister who is not afraid to push me and who cares about me enough to want to help me become more active and to participate in the process.  I am so grateful for my sister.  I truly am.  Out of all the things my parents gave me in my life, she is the one that means the most and is the most important to me. I love her so much, but you all know that. I would do anything for her.  I wish I could wave a magic wand over her  life and cure all her ills and hurts.  But alas, I cannot.  I can only love her and be there for her, as she is for me.  I know I fall short sometimes.  But I try.

I have found someone to take the sofa.  My cousin's daughter and her husband want it, so that is good.  Much better than having it end up in the landfill. I will pop into Home Hardware today and arrange a delivery time for the new one and then I can tell my cousin when they can pick up the old one. Nutmeg and Cinnamon will wonder what is going on  I am sure.  It will be nice to have something more comfortable to sit on, lay on, relax on.  The old one has served me well and I am glad that it will have a new home where I know it will be appreciated.

 

(source)

I've been watching a program on Netflix called You Are What You Eat. 

"In a scientific experiment, identical twins adopt different diets and lifestyles for 8 weeks to see how food impacts the body."

I have only watched three episodes, one to go.  It certainly has me thinking about how I eat, not so much diet wise, but planet wise. How my choices affect the planet.  I think much of the food that we eat, especially when it comes to protein is produced horribly, with not a lot of thought to the humanity of the process. That breaks my heart.  I enjoy nothing more than a good steak, but do I really want to pay the price for that steak that it costs the environment, or the animal who provided it for me.  I am not sure that I do.  I am not sure that I can go totally vegan . . .  that is a pretty steep learning curve and I have a freezer full of meat that needs to be eaten, but I can certainly eat more plant based than I do right now.  I like butter, milk, cheese and yogurt though  . . .  cream.  Perhaps find a more reliable humane source of those?  What is the answer?   Its not factory farming.  That breaks my heart. Even the way fish is farmed. Its despicable. All of it.

There has to be a better way.

 

 

(source)

When I was a child I would have loved to have had a Wendy House.  I loved playing house. We had an orange Tee Pee with the silhouette of an Indian Chief printed on it. It had no floor and it smelled funny, but it was a cool place to read on hot summer days.  Instead I preferred stringing up a skipping rope across the front porch and hanging a blanket over top of it to make myself a little house.  We did not have a lot in the way of toys but our imaginations served us well. That is not a bad thing. To have an imagination and be able to use it.

In kindergarten we had a play area at the back of the classroom. There was a spot that had a make-believe kitchen with a stove, etc.  That was my favorite place to play with the little dishes and pots and pans.  

At home, we had a blackboard that we got for Christmas one year. Once the chalk ran out, that blackboard was everything but a blackboard for us. It was a slide, the roof on a pretend house, a fort, etc.  A blackboard without chalk can no longer be a blackboard.

My best friend had a huge wooden doll house. The whole back of it was a swinging door that opened up and gained you entrance to the glorious insides.  I used to love to go to her place and play inside it.  Playing house again.  Oh how I would have loved to have one of those.  I still miss my doll house that I had in the U.K. Perhaps one day I will replace it.  Somehow it is not as much fun to play house and have to clean and keep a real house as it is to keep a doll house, or to have a play house.

As an adult, chores are just that, chores  . . .  and cease to be play. That's sad really.  How much more fun it would be if we could play at doing our chores.

 

(source)

I was thinking this morning about how much I miss my sparrows. The ones which lived in the hedges which ran along the length and breadth of my back garden in the U.K. There was nothing spectacular about them. They were very plain to look at, but they always brought me lots of joy. I loved to see their little heads popping out of the hedge to greet the morning sunshine, to hear them chattering away. It always made me happy.

All I seem to attract with bird feeders in my yard now is rats, and I don't want them, so I don't feed the birds, except for the humming birds in the summer months, and those do bring me lots of joy.  We did not have those in the U.K. so I suppose that is a small compensation for not being able to feed the other birds here, or to have sparrows in my hedgerow. It is the same joy, just different.

And with that I will leave you with a thought for the day  . . . 

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

 *.˛.Memory is the power to
gather roses in the Winter.
~anonymous•。★★ 。* 。

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

That anonymous is a really smart person.

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  School Dinner Jam & Coconut Sponge.  The small batch.  A delicious buttery moist cake topped with jam and coconut.  Fabulously tasty!

I hope that you have a beautiful weekend. Whatever you get up to, I hope you stay safe, warm and happy.  Be blessed. Don't forget!

═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ 

⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════     


And I do too!