Did you ever hear someone say, "He's made his bed, now he'll have to lie in it"? Have you ever wished someone had said that to you when you were young--and that you had listened to them?
The new year has just begun. It is the time of new beginnings. It may look like this outside:
But in a few months it will look like this:
One of the wisest things I've ever read in a novel was in a 1951 book called Shoulder the Sky by D.E. Stevenson, Robert E.'s cousin. A shepherd in the hills of Scotland happens across the cook's son, hiding in the opening of a cave, reading a book, a truant from school.
"Now listen," said Daniel gravely. "Just you listen to me and I'll tell you something worth remembering. When we're young we make our beds and when we're older we have to lie on them. I'd make myself a comfortable bed if I were you--straight and tidy with the blankets well tucked in at the foot--then it'll not come adrift when you lie in it. If a bed's not properly made at the start the blankets'll maybe fall off in the night and you'll wake up shivering."
A child could learn in a few short months to make his bed properly. It might take a grownup a little longer but I'm going to give it a try because I don't want to wake up shivering next winter.
If you have been shivering a little lately from the cold, the flu, from bad news all around us, you might like to visit the blog I visited earlier through Cozy Little House's Welcome Wagon Friday. It's name is My Cottage On the Lake and the blogger had some lovely ideas for finding beauty all around us. Beauty is always good when you're trying to make your bed properly.
http://mycottageonthelake.blogspot.com
