I’ve spent some time this week thinking about all the small moments where I’ve slowed down and appreciated something small–and realized that in that moment, there was joy and peace.
So, I’ll share a few of these moments of mine with you today.
Roses on the kitchen counter…alongside a “minion” piece made and gifted by a granddaughter. AND, now that I look, a glass all filled with filtered water and a straw.
The view from the porch that revels in the roses, the shells, the lush green grass. It’s hard to leave this view when it is time to leave it.
The sight of “Happy” on the floor as I make sure that I don’t have binding joins at the corners. BTW, I read recently on Bonnie Hunter’s blog that she DOES put on the binding of a quilt that she is hand quilting. So, that’s what I’m doing. Except for the border, I’m half done now. And the binding is all sewn down.
Noon dinner and supper all organized and each bowl including slices from a roasted lamb rack and freshly made low-country organic stone ground (rough version that takes a long while to cook) grits–alongside freshly roasted carrots and peppers and steamed fresh broccoli–with half a Honey Crisp apple for dessert.
Dinner on the porch, next to the beautiful flowers that my neighbor gifted me for my birthday–these flowers are new to me but are ones she knows from her life in California. The brown jug sat on my Georgia grandmother’s back porch and was locally made…so long ago. (I told you she loved brown.) There is joy too in the espresso freshly made.
Then there was the moment where the stove top had been scrubbed and scrubbed where I let the grits overflow AGAIN–making an awful mess. (You can’t turn your back on them for a moment until you get the heat right so they just simmer.)
And the moment when the dishes were all cleaned and the kitchen set to rights.
The sight of my current fiction book on the table as I walked past. I’m so enjoying it–the first of Jan Karon’s Mitford series.
Or my DIL Corinne coming over to help me plant the camellia she and Bryan and the girls gave me for my birthday–which also contained our fun visit to Hidden Pond nursery. I was so happy to see her as the chosen spot for that plant was SOLID clay all the way down. It took both of us using the Maddox and the shovel and water to dig a hole deep enough to line it with sand and compost. We sweated, we laughed, we got all dirty, we persevered.
And LOOK at the Asian jasmine this year. It’s off and running now every where I planted it.
The sight of how happy the six hollies are now–after a year of care and love. They are lush and green and all fluffy and are forming LOTS of new berries for the fall.
Or the time spent with new friends at a local Sit and Sew Saturday morning–where a very talented member of this modern group is teaching us a new skill.
You know…
I’m realizing that I could go on remembering these moments of peace and joy of these past few days. And I’m feeling so grateful.
And my hope this morning is that you, too, will slow down and think a bit about these moments in YOUR life.