Autumnal Musings

 What to say.... I want to blog about the geese and ducks that have been coming to the pond, this autumn ~ Or, about my sons' incredible drawings, these days ~ or about the rabbit (sad news on that front, unfortunately - but, then, good news - I keep putting it all off!) ~ or, I'd love to tell you all about my madcap experiments in the kitchen (think fish heads!!!) ~ or so many things that I keep thinking would be fun to share. I love blogging!! It's like a rosy colored journal - a way to stop and focus on the good!! Not to mention, for me, it feels like uber pen-palling with friends from all over the world!!

But, the reality that fills up my sights, these days, is dust!! Between the three dogs having staked out a favorite place to play and roll (that has, now, turned from grass to fine sand) and the sanding of the dry wall upstairs (yes, we kept doors closed and plastic up but it's like a thick fog that gets everywhere!!) and the spiders coming in from the cold and spinning webs everywhere... HONESTLY!!! It looks like we live in a haunted house!! Then, there are the boxes that we're drowning in... it's all hard to explain but - we had to clean out our attic and, hopefully, at the end of this project we'll have closets. Sometimes the mess wends it's way through our home like the Great Wall of China. I keep thinking that, at the end of this, we'll get back to living and I'll REALLY have something to blog about but, then, yesterday, I felt like we'd never make it - that the chaos would stretch on forever!!

Enter a fascinating and timely book that I just happen to be reading. It's called, "Dwelling in Possibility: Searching for the Soul of Shelter" by Howard Mansfield. It's all about what makes 'home' and I am LOVING this book!! There's history, philosophy and insight and it's already opening up my heart and eyes!

One of his insights/questions is, what is a house for? Is it a box to house a huge screen lit up by an electronic glow? Is it a storage shed to hold mountains of stuff? What LIVES in a house? It's a question I'm asking myself - what lives in my house - and there are some things that make me blush but, yes - People! my family lives here!! and, well.... lots of plants. Oh! and books! and lots and lots and lots of china! (The way it makes itself at home around here, perhaps it does rather rule the roost! oops! =/) And, we can never ever forget - LEGOS live here!!!! (I step on one at least once a week!)

But his point is deeper. We don't live in houses - we live in our skin - in our hearts and minds and spirit! We spend so much time scouring magazines and paying for boxes to organize, organize, organize in a search for a better life, perhaps? But, it seems never ending! He says, "what's keeping you from living? Throw it all away, step over it, push it into a corner, under a tarp, into the garage, barn, storage shed. Mice, rats, mold, mildew will have their way. Just go live your life." and, there's so much more but you'll just have to get the book! I just want to share this quote from the book with you by Thomas Merton that was so inspirational for me!

"If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for. Between these two answers you can determine the identity of any person. The better answer he has, the more of a person he is."

~ Thomas Merton

I feel deeply moved and challenged!!

xo

P.S. Pretty autumnal bouquet was photographed next door at my MIL's peacefully lived in home! ;)