Yes, I'm trying to get my space straightened up. Piles of filing abound--but I'm making some headway. If I do it in bits at a time is almost bearable. The hope is that I'll get better organized and come up with a system to help me find those things I put in "really safe" places and then can't remember where I put them!
Today I also bought a replacement for the mixer (30+ years old) that decided to stop working when I last was baking cookies for church. The new one (basic Black and Decker, not too expensive) worked wonderfully this evening as I made some treats for a birthday gathering tomorrow. Rich will also enjoy the pistachio biscotti. He doesn't like chocolate so the girls will have plenty of the raspberry chocolate brownies tomorrow. Both recipes were from the "Flat Belly Cookbook" so they are terribly bad....
I finally finished one of the books I'm reading for the United Methodist Women (UMW) reading plan. This one is by Megan McKenna; This will be Remembered of Her, Stories of Women Reshaping the World. At first I didn't feel much of a "pull" from it and considered setting it aside. It got more interesting though. The end had me enthralled. So many emotions as I read it--frustration, sorrow, anger, hopelessness, admiration for the subject women, gratitude that there are women willing to do whatever it takes to change their world, appreciation for McKenna's research and writing. One of her questions is especially intriguing: "What if the original sin is fratricide (Cain and Abel), and the original story (Adam and Eve) tells us that there are certain rules one must break in order to become more fully human, and that choosing what will lead us to wholeness involves reaching for wisdom, though there are consequences?"
Two more quotes from the book that I want to remember:
Holy Wisdom in your power, hold us fast in every hour.
Enclose us in your threefold wings spreading to embrace all things.
One pierces heaven's heights above, another touches earth with love.
The other moves with tender care in mystery through the cosmic air.
Holy Wisdom in your power, enlighten us in every hour.
--Hildegard of Bingen
And what do you plan on doing with your one wild and precious life?
--Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day"
Coincidence fascinates me. I happened to find a book of poetry by Mary Oliver deeply discounted last year and gave a copy to a good friend this Christmas. (Kept one for myself as well.) And low and behold! Mary Oliver speaks to me out of some current reading.
And it is a very good question indeed....
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