I feel like I’ve been in a season of gathering lately. Ideas and inspiration are being found and stored away, to be put to use after pondering and thought. These are some “nuts” I’ve picked up recently:
I haven’t really put any of these ideas to use yet; I’m kind of letting them simmer for a while to see what ends up bubbling up to the surface as important.
What’s inspiring you these days?
I’m currently reading Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World
I read this yesterday and it was like a kick in the head, so I thought I’d share.
“One Amish man joked that if her were meant to plow at night, God would have put a headlight on a horse. The Amish respect natural limitations: sunlight and seasons, hunger and fatigue. Do you accept those limitations, or do you try to override them? Do you ever feel as if you are expecting too much from yourself?
How many times in a day do you feel rushed? How many times in a day do you feel frustrated? Are those moments always related to each other? Building a margin of error into your schedule – for unexpected things like traffic jams – can be a simple and effective way to add peace to your life.” p 86 of Amish Peace
Share your thoughts in the comments if you like, and if you need something to read, check out this book. The chapters are really short, so it’s easy to pick up and put down, and I’m really learning a lot from it — about the Amish, and about myself.
Later after I married and had a child, I learned to find equal meaning in the repeated rituals of domestic life. Setting the table. Lighting the candles. Building the fire. Cooking. All those souffles, all that creme caramel, all those daubes and albondigas and gumbos. Clean sheets, stacks of clean towels, hurricane lamps for storms, enough water and food to see us through whatever geological event came our way. These fragments I have shared against my ruins were the words that came to mind then. These fragments mattered to me. I believed in them.
What rituals of domestic life do you find meaning in?
a book? I’m only partway through it, but it’s fascinating so far.
You can get it here for $6. (Woo hoo, bargain books!) It’s all about why we feel the need for speed (historically and sociologically speaking), and the movement to take back control over our own time. It may have just given me the inspiration I needed to tackle more hands on cooking – what will it inspire you to do?
I’ll post a more comprehensive review once I’ve finished it, but for now, if it sounds interesting to you, go take a look!
