a week's worth of odds & ends
We made it guys! It's the last day of january and I sort of have all these butterflies in my stomach when thinking about next month. I am so looking forward to crumpling up january and throwing it away. Well, I suppose I'll save a few shreds here and there but most of it was not something I'd like to remember. I will admit that I think my attitude played a large part. Somewhere in the second week of january I got so beaten down that I gave up. I stopped looking for the positive and the second you do that your eyes, ears and mind can't help but practically seek out the negative. Part of it, I believe is the fact that I have been slacking on the spiritual front. I always had some dumb excuse as to why I didn't have time for my devotional, I haven't been spending as much time praying and we're still trying to figure out this whole church thing ever since we lost our senior pastor this summer. It's nothing new, I've always known that when I don't keep myself spiritually fed I always flounder during tougher times. And I'm determined to change that next month.
I've had this poem by Mary Oliver on my mind all week, brining me back to a place of peace and gratitude:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
My lovely friend Eliza challenged me at the beginning of this week to continue to find inspiration and beauty in our situation. Even though we weren't at home and I was missing it like crazy I was determined to make the best of our situation. My in-laws graciously gave us their basement and on monday we stopped at Ikea to get some things to spruce up the place and make it feel more like home. It's amazing what a pretty print and some beautiful plants can do for your mood. Yesterday we popped into a used bookstore we used to frequent when we lived in Maryland and we walked away with a whole box full of beautiful classic books that have been on our reading lists for ages. I haven't read any Rudyard Kipling since I was a child but he's one of my father's favorite authors and I can't wait to discover his other works.
So this week actually turned out not too bad. And february is already looking great! I'm having brunch with a sweet friend tomorrow, we're hoping to head back home on tuesday and once home I hope to drown myself in heart shaped cookies, garlands and love notes. Speaking of which I saw this awesome waffle recipe on Pinterest perfect for Valentine's day! And this doesn't really have anything to do with Valentine's day but Mary Beth's post about thanksgiving (not the holiday) was just what I needed to hear this week. She is such an inspiration!! Also this phenomenal article by the remarkable Grace Bonney about the current state and future of blogging has all my wheels spinning. For anyone interested in the blog world it is a must read! *
*On this subject I wanted to get your feedback regarding how you feel about comments? Do you like having the ability to comment or do you prefer to use other avenues? If so what are those avenues? I love communicating with you and I feel that if comments are no longer the way to go about it I would be happy to change things up!