I'm probably not alone lately in feeling that the world has been too much with me and in a desperate desire to find tranquility of mind and spirit, I'm pulling back my involvement in social media to a comfortable level. As a small part of this I'm blocking comments at both my blogs and, at least for the time being, will be posting only as a type of personal journal that may involve long boring posts on my favorite books or recipes that I'll mainly post for that family cookbook that my kids will stick in a drawer.
[Tuppy thinks to herself] Seventy-seven. What had happened to the years? Old age seemed to have taken her unaware and totally unprepared. Tuppy Armstrong was not old. Other people were old, like one's own grandmother, or characters in books. She thought of Lucilla Eliot, in The Herb of Grace. The epitome, one would have thought, of a perfect matriarch.
from Under Gemini by Rosamunde Pilcher
I am now the same age as Tuppy and am examining how I want to spend the energy and hours I may have left. We live in unsettled times, to put it mildly, and owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to weigh how we want to spend precious time that will not always be there.
One thing that I don't want to spend my hours on anymore is elevated stress following the political story of the day on Facebook, or, God forbid, ever again participating in what Mrs. Minerva called, "tedious and unprofitable discussion...clear from the outset that neither side was going to budge an inch."
Good grief, how such discussions drain one!
Tuppy refers to Lucilla Eliot as truly old so maybe I truly am too because I agree with Lucilla in one of my favorite books, The Herb of Grace (American title: Pilgrim's Inn):
Lucilla knew always...that it was homemaking that mattered. Every home was a brick in the great wall of decent living that men erected over and over again as a bulwark against the perpetual flooding in of evil. But women made the bricks, and the durableness of each civilization depended upon their quality, and it was no good weakening oneself for the brick-making by thinking too much about the flood.
Elizabeth Goudge's The Herb of Grace/Pilgrim's Inn
I've come to realize that in this stage of my life I need to be careful to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16). Each one to their own mission in life and Lucilla's is mine.
But it is only fair that I warned you that I'm closing comments on my blogs in case you don't want to spend your own precious time reading a blog without comments.
In order to have pictures with this post I'm including pictures of a favorite lunch. I don't know how much longer good watermelon will be in the stores this season but I intend to enjoy them while it lasts, with a squirt of lime juice and a sprinkle of Trader Joe's Chile Lime Seasoning Blend.
Surely watermelon is one thing I can pig out on!
With it I had some of my tuna/rotini salad that consists of whatever fresh veggies are in the produce drawer and a creamy mayo/Proseco vinegar dressing.
And almost always two squares of 72% dark chocolate for dessert, strictly for all the good antioxidants naturally. Ha!
God bless you and keep you and good health to you,
Dewena
Do not be afraid, Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today...The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.
Exodus 14:13-14
