20 Things to Do When It's Time to Dust

 

Today was a bit of an unusual day. 

There were no appointments, no Dr. Visits, and no zooms.

Every month I try to hold a FREE DAY on the calendar.

It doesn't always work. I was very excited 

when it turned up today still blank.

The only thing I had down today

 was to do dusting in the house.

But, you also need to know that I have a genetic quirk

that makes this household task a challenge.

My mom didn't like to dust.

Her mom would dust when she came to visit.

My mom dusted for me when she came to visit.

My mom has been gone for 22 years.

I dust for my daughters when I visit them.

Yes, I have dusted our home in the last two decades,

 but today there were the distractions.

Here is what happened today:

1. my morning devotions

2. chatted or texted with all three daughters

3. folded and put away laundry

4. dealt with about 60 emails

5. returned damaged cheese to Costco (and bought groceries)

6. deadheaded the yarrow

7. changed the water in the little bottles that are rooting cuttings

8. fixed supper and cleaned up

9.     harvested some of the first lavender

10. filed some papers

12.  read 50 pages in Theo of Golden

13. emptied and refilled the dishwasher

14.  realized that feverfew matched the porcelain flowers 

       on the lamp by my bedside- so had to put a bouquet right there

15.  three phone calls and one video call

16.  sorted a couple paper piles

17.  noticed, stood and watched what we can see of a sunset                             

       at our house

18.  worked on a prayer card for Joey

19.  did some planning for vacation

20.  watched the latest on Castle Impossible

And no dusting.  

So... you see what happens.

On every day and a FREE DAY.  

But, I can still count gifts today.

There is tomorrow..... 

3000 Days

August 11, 2019 was the 3000th day

 of Counting Gifts.

That is about 8 years, 2 months 

and some odd days ago.

I have to admit that when I started this practice -

I really never had any idea

 of the future longevity of it all.

Perhaps I had started so many things

 that just fell by the wayside,

 I couldn't picture keeping up with something.

But, the weeks just kept rolling along,

into months.

Time to update 

and add new pages for the new year.

And another new year.
Till yesterday.
There is no special prize for the 3000th day.
Just an amazing blessing to look back
 and see the counting of the gifts, 
days after day, week after week, 
month after month, year after year.
Because HE is faithful.


Psalm 36:5
Your steadfast love, O Lord,
extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.

When the End is a New Beginning

 I came to the end of a journal

 at the end of 2018. 

Full- no pages left.

2,770 days of counting gifts.

Started in August 2011.

That was to be the one year experiment.

Imagine my surprise-

when something is so far off your horizon,

you can't even picture what 2, 4, 7 years of 

a spiritual discipline practice might look like.

 Another journal has been the gathering of 

Prayers by the Month.

Actually that began in Feb 2011

 and has included a couple of different journals.

So I sat them on the shelf-

these old friends.

I have made another journal

 to start 2019 and combine 
both practices in one journal.

This was the solution that a team of

 Millennials came up with for a retreat awhile back.

Sounds good to me.

Think I would have started out

 that way but hadn't designed the 

Prayers by the Month as a practice

 that worked for ME yet.

 I will keep these old journals close by--

 for within the pages of Living Eucharisteo

are the highs and lows and blessings

 right in the middle of messy life living.

Since I have a diagnosis of Spiritual Amnesia 

and forget the gifts from the Father- 

one week or one month ago,

pretty sure I can't remember 5 years ago.

But, the testimony will be there.

For that I GIVE THANKS.

So time with those journals has ended,

but I look forward to the new beginning.
Even though I might need
 to revisit them once in awhile.