Sober Saturday

Loved this plant with its little star shaped flowers...cannot recall its name....from my house in NC....
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Had a good day today...cleaned house and did laundry, had company, shared a good meal with my husband. I'm tired and wanted to stop by before heading off to bed.

I've just put the doggies out for the last time. They won't be long, it's down to 45 degrees tonight already. It was a very cool and overcast day, and perfect for housekeeping. I lit some lilac candles and put on some jazz and blues and sang my way through the morning. I love it when my house is clean and smells good. lol Not always the case with 3 dogs and 10 cats and a cockatiel.. But I do my best. I have never smoked, and I think that partially accounts for this ridiculous sense of smell that I have. I was walking around the kitchen this morning, saying to husbandman--Do you smell that? I smell something...a dead mouse, maybe?? And he rolls his eyes and says (always) NO, I don't smell anything...But I'm telling you, I smell something...a nominally putrid and decomposing scent of something. I'll find it too...you'll see...lol Probably a dead mouse...behind the stove or in the wall. Living in the country one thing you can count on is mice moving indoors when the weather turns cool. They are like tourists heading for the tropics, first in line.

I love having someone visit for the first time. You get to see your home through new eyes every time. I become so inured of all the things that still aren't repaired or completed to my liking that I paint the whole place with that brush. All the projects that we never have the extra money for. All the things that fill up MY view of my world...things undone, things half-done, things that will possibly never be done. All the lawn that isn't mowed, the painting that needs doing, the walls that need washed...things that nobody really sees unless I'm stupid enough to point it out. lol
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I grateful for all the little blessings in my life today.

• Running water
• the irises I planted that finally got rain and are looking good
• a second batch of green beans coming on
• kittens sunning on the rock wall in the late afternoon
• the Canadian geese showing up on the pond
• smells of woodsmoke in the crisp fall air
• the return of winter birds...chicadees and cardinals and juncos
• red and gold and orange leaves
• empty hummingbird feeders that need to come down, because the last of the hummers have gone
• the way the pace of life is starting to slow down
• good weather for soups and stews

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All this brings to mind my favorite song in the whole wide world, called Holy as a day is spent, by Carrie Newcomer. It goes like this:

holy is the dish and drain
the soap and sink, the cup and plate
and the warm wool socks, and the cold white tile
showerheads and good dry towels
and frying eggs sound like psalms
with bits of salt measured in my palm
it's all a part of sacrament
as holy as a day is spent

holy is the busy street
and cars that boom with passions beat
and the checkout girl, counting change
and the hands that shook my hands today
and hymns of geese fly overhead
and spread their wings like their parents did
blessed be the dog, that runs in her sleep
to chase some wild and elusive thing

holy is the familiar room
and quiet moments in the afternoon
and folding sheets like folding hands
to pray as only laundry can
i'm letting go of all my fear
like autumn leaves made of earth and air
for the summer came and the summer went
as holy as a day is spent

holy is the place i stand
to give whatever small good i can
and the empty page and the open book
redemption everywhere i look
unknowingly we slow our pace
in the shade of unexpected grace
and with grateful smiles and sad lament
as holy as a day is spent
and morning light sings "providence"
as holy as a day is spent


Namaste.