Time to Reflect

So…this was an unusual week for us…we had a little at-home “retreat” due to Covid.  Luckily, we are a-okey, or so we hope, and are just now starting to return to the outside world.  

But wait a minute—“not so fast,” a part of me says.  

🧡There is a gift in pulling back, in doing less, in having nothing on the calendar, in getting “decongested,” so to speak.  

🧡It is soothing to have time to reflect on all the events that have transpired over the last month, my 60th (omg!) college reunion and an emotional election being two biggies.

🧡There is pleasure in the warmth and comfort of home, in lolligagging in p.j.’s with a  journal, in revisiting books in the “reference library,” as my librarian husband calls one of my small bookshelves.

As I was perusing that shelf, I decided to revisit a book called Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller.  Appropriate, yes?  In it, I read a description of “thinning” that I liked. 

“Thinning” is pulling out some of the seedlings in a vegetable patch so that the vegetables that remain have the space and nutrients to thrive.  I remember doing that a few years ago with some carrots I had planted; I felt sad pulling out some of those seedlings, yet I learned it was necessary for the remaining seedlings to grow to their fullest and best.  

As Muller says.”Thinning is…making space for life.”  I like this slant on all of the “thinning” of activities of this past week and all the “thinning” I always seem to be doing—in my closet, on my bookshelves, in my storage bins. Maybe this letting go will not only help me be more me, now, but also provide others with items that help them.  A potential win-win, it seems to me.

I am looking forward to our normal outside social forays, and to whatever renewal may be on its way.  At the same time, I say a big thank you to all our friends who checked in on us, offered shopping services, brought us delicious food and goodies and prayed for our health.  And I say a big thank you, as well, for our quiet, healing reflection time at home.

📕 On My Bookshelf:

     📙The Little Book of Joy: 365 Ways to Celebrate Every Day, written by Joanne Ruelos Diaz, illustrated by Annelies Draws. Though the book is for young readers, I’m loving it! It’s simple, colorful, inspirational, and provides sweet daily child-like upper “directives” like “Decorate with Polka Dots” and “Sing in the Shower.”  No recipes…except for little pieces of daily happiness… pretty important. 

     📙I’m also relishing 😋 a newish book purchase of mine called The Story of Pasta and How to Cook It! By Steven Guarnaccia. A colorful book, it describes 35 different kinds of pasta and sauces to accompany them.  Geared toward children, the child in me is loving it and learning from it.  Did you know that “penne,” the short tube pasta cut at an angle, were named after their namesakes, early “pens” or“quills” which were also cut at an angle and dipped in ink for writing?  Or how about “farfalle,” meaning “butterflies” in Italian or “conghiglie,” meaning “shells” because, you guessed it, of their shape. This could be a fun holiday gift for an adventurous pasta lover of any age, or just a fun flip-through during a library or bookstore visit.

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                                      Happy Soon-to-Be Thanksgiving, All❣️