Finding Things

Today with the help of a friend, I found my quilter's cutting mat. I have known it was there, been sure that I didn't give it away and no one could find it. It was right were I thought it had been, hiding there quietly all along.

Today was a summer day and the evening is beautiful. It will be warm again tomorrow and then back to cold for a few days this coming week. The light at this time of the year, like the light in the fall, is so ethereal, it is almost poignant. I think it is because it is filtered by leaves. At times today the silence felt as deep as the ocean and it was possible to forget that this area, that had been semi-rural fifty years ago, is becoming so urban. In another year, I will have lived in this house for fifty years--with the exception of six years away for graduate school. That is unusual for this area.

At heart, I think, I might have been a good cloistered nun. One of the great aspects of the monastic life that St. Benedict wrote about in the Rules of St. Benedict was stability. My life has had that in large measure and it has suited my personality. I do not take to change easily or well.

In spite of that though, making changes in the house is finally feeling like an accomplishment; recovering the use of the rooms for their purposes from the clutter that has too long filled them is a blessing. I am grateful to everyone who has been helping in this effort, especially my sister who labors valiantly on her too infrequent visits to get me organized and dear friends who move things around for me when I can't do it myself. One in particular, C, who is a professional organizer has asked me to think about my activities and how and where I do them with an eye to re ordering the spaces. This helps a great deal. Everything does not have to be done at the dining room table. I look forward to gathering around it with friends again for meals, even though, in this war time economy and on my budget, they will most likely be ferial rather than festal. (The book which best puts forth that concept, Robert Farrar Capon's The Supper of the Lamb surfaced last week from the depths of the big book case. I hope to re-read it soon.)

This morning I was delighted to see in my in box that someone commented on my post from yesterday. Thank you, whoever you are.