Hurrying and hedgehogs

"I have learned to quit speeding through life, always trying to do too many things too quickly, without taking the time  to enjoy each day's doings.  I think I always thought of real living as being high.  I don't mean on drugs - I mean real living was falling in love, or when I got my first job, or when I was able to help somebody, or watch my baby get born, or have a good morning of really good writing.  In between the highs I was impatient - you know how it is - life seemed so Daily.  Now I love the dailiness.  I enjoy washing the dishes.  I enjoy cooking, I see my father's roses out the kitchen window, I like picking beans.  I notice everything - birdsongs, the clouds, the sound of wind, the glory of sunshine after two weeks of rain.  These things I took for granted before."  (Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry, Katrina Kenison)

This pretty much sums it up for me.  Well, for me perhaps it's less of a fait acompli and more of a daily striving towards.  But that's where I struggle to stand everyday.  With each passing day, with each life experience, I enjoy my daily work more and more - my very own quotidian mysteries.  :)  


PS - This little guy is one of our many rock animals emerging from a long winter of hibernation.  That's an accurate description for most of us here too.  

Bright Tuesday

Christ is risen!  And welcome back, friends!  It has been a very profitable break for me these past 40 days.  I am eager to revisit my little space though, perhaps do a little sweeping of the soul, hang out some thoughts to air, you know.  

I have been thinking how wonderful our Pascha was this year.  Just the right mix of calm and joy.  After the exhausting rhythm of Holy Week (the latter part mostly), Pascha arrived with all it's explosion of feeling.  Christ is risen!  No better words for it.  

And on bright Monday, we embraced again the quiet joy and time for thanksgiving.  It is a blessed cycle and one I look forward to with my whole heart.  

We went to the park yesterday morning and again in the evening.  Just walking outside with the wind playing in our hair and on our faces, we felt renewed.  Very little work was done.  Yet much happening.  Reading, building puzzles, listening to stories, playing math games, riding bikes, constructing train track cities.  And of course, eating.  Ah yes.  I'm sure I've matched my entire caloric intake of Holy Week in one day.  *sigh*  Gotta work on that.

Wishing you a bright week!