The Juxtaposition of Two Environments

"It makes an enormous difference if someone creates an environment for you to live in.  One person sleeps half the day, gets up looking like a half-dead duck, drags around with eyelids scarcely open, slurping coffee and leaving a mess all over the newly polished sink, leaves the bed unmade and a week of clothing in a heap on the bed, heaves a sigh and moans about what a drag life is, then prepares to sit and philosophize while you work.  What is the effect of this on you? Surely, you begin to feel tired, discouraged, irritated, frustrated, and hopeless.  Your own energy begins to ebb away.  You decide to put off the rush of getting your article written.  After all, you might as well go out for a walk.  And so one wasted, ugly life infects another.

"A second person gets up when the alarm goes off, or soon after, puts water on for the tea or coffee and helps to get breakfast, takes a bath and dresses so cheerily that you feel the sun must be shining and have to look again to realize the sky is still grey, makes his bed and clears things up so that you feel the urge to get to work soon, tidies the living room so that it looks better than it had been left the night before, and talks with an awareness and enthusiasm that gives you inspiration for your article and you feel there will be no doubt about getting it finished in time.  Both have pitched into work before the hoped-for starting time, feeling a surge of accomplishment and energy that seems to multiply the time instead of wasting it."

                   --Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Nothing motivates me to avoid looking like a half-dead duck in the morning more than this passage! And for anyone who has lived with or visited with a person described in the former paragraph....you know what a joy it is to live with someone like the one described in the latter paragraph.  I'm glad to note that my husband is firmly in the second category and I appreciate that very much.  My natural inclination is to drag around with my eyelids scarcely open, because I am not a morning person, but I genuinely try to get up and at it in a cheerful, efficient way each day-thanks in no small part to the encouragement of Edith here.

We are an Art Form, Part II

"...it is an amazing thought that we are the art form God can use in this area of environment to involve others who come into our presence.  Our conversations, attitudes, behaviour, response or lack of response, hardness or compassion, our love or selfishness, joy or dullness, our demonstrated trust and faith or our continual despondency, our concern for others or our self pity--all these things make a difference to the people who have to live in our 'environment'. Enthusiasm and excitement infect other people: expectancy that God can intervene and do something in this moment of history and doing something practical to show that expectancy in prayer, affects the attitudes other people are going to have to their troubles."

             --Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking

The Work of the Day

"Laura and Mary helped Ma with the work. Every morning there were dishes to wipe. Mary wiped more of them than Laura because she was bigger, but Laura always wiped carefully her own little cup and plate. 

"By the time the dishes were all wiped and set away, the trundle bed was aired.  Then, standing one on each side, Laura and Mary straightened the covers, tucked them in well at the foot and the sides, plumped up the pillows and put them in place.  Then Ma pushed the trundle bed into its place under the big bed.

"After this was done, Ma began the work that belonged to that day.  Each day had its own proper work.  Ma used to say: 

"Wash on Monday, 

Iron on Tuesday,

Mend on Wednesday,

Churn on Thursday,

Clean on Friday,

Bake on Saturday, 

Rest on Sunday. 

"Laura liked the churning and the baking days best of all the week." 

--Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Domestic Comforts

The last chapter in Victoria Moran's book Shelter for the Spirit is entitled Comforts, and I love it so much that I gravitate to it over and over again.  I would call these 'comforts' either treats or little pleasures, but they are all the same: the precious bits of our domestic life that give us solace and keep us healthy and content.

"Comforts aren't confined to home, of course, but at-home comforts have an advantage in being readily available and, for the most part, already paid for.  I recently rode with a taxi driver who told me that driving was a second job so he could pay off debts.  His strategy for financial independence?  'I don't go anywhere and I don't do anything.'  I asked if this spartan lifestyle was difficult.  'Oh no,' he said. 'I've never been happier.' He explained how he had become an excellent cook....was playing trumpet for the first time since high school, and refurnishing much of his house by refinishing attic heirlooms.  Going 'nowhere' and 'doing nothing' can lead to a high-quality life." (Emphasis mine.)

My own domestic comforts include, but are not limited to:
*sleeping on comfortable, fresh sheets
*a pot of earl grey tea
*wearing my wool-cashmere socks and curling up on our supremely comfortable sofa
*hot baths
*puttering around in my small collection of my great-grandmother's linens
*opening the curtains first thing in the morning to let all the light fill the house, and opening the windows to let in the fresh air
*knitting
*reading to my children (and myself!)
*doing some handsewing while watching something relaxing and often British
*eating a special chocolate
*taking Sundays off from everything
*putting a fresh tablecloth on the table
*reading poetry
*puttering in general--I love to putter. I love to pick up a bit here, poke around in fabrics, rearrange a shelf or closet....
*serving my family a really good dinner
*playing the piano
*plotting out a creative project and seeing it through to the end
*having little rituals like grace before meals, bath on certain nights, and putting the house to bed

The list could go on and on!  I highly recommend Victoria Moran's book, too--it is full of domestic inspiration.

We are an Art Form

"....we are an art form. I do not mean that we produce art consciously now, but I mean we are an art form, whether we think of it or not, and whether we do anything about it or not.  We are an environment, each one of us. We are an environment for the other people with whom we live, the people with whom we work, the people with whom we communicate.  And in this sense we do not choose an art form and create something in that form; we are an art form.....people who come across us or walk into our presence, become involved.....we should have thoughtfulnes concerning our responsbility in this area.  We should be artists in doing something about the environment we are creating..."

        --Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking