flowers at your feet,
duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.
Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes,
certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest thing in life. " Robert Louis Stevenson
I don't know why it is that I sometimes think I cannot live the life my heart craves. Simple things like baking bread and growing food and nature walks and a rhythmic week and a hand craft skill. I think I get caught in the thinking trap of "because I haven't before, I cannot now" and it just isn't true. So, I take a little step. I bake bread--with my children (and friends:). Our first try was yesterday and I loved it. I loved the smell and bubbles of the yeast, I loved seeing the ingredients slowly form into dough and I loved the feel of my hands shaping it. I rejoiced as I gave each child a little ball of dough to play with and watched as they mimicked my clumsy attempts at kneading the dough. Such a small moment, but a moment that was meaningful to me. Meaningful in my quest to be "certain that daily tasks and daily bread are the sweetest things in life." It's sometimes hard in this busy, stimulating culture to see the worth of the work of our hands and yet I so often find that as my heart and my home move slower, my thoughts turn to our God. To ask Him for energy and willing hands, to ask for a thankful heart and contentment in my daily work. And really, drawing nearer to God really is the sweetest thing. It is what my soul cries out for most. So I thank Him again now, for teaching and growing me in this season as a mama, as a wife, as a teacher, as a keeper of my home--teaching me that fulfillment can come through things as simple as making a meal, wiping off the dust, kissing the hurt, celebrating a birthday, making bread, praying with our children, singing as we work, giving grace and receiving it, running in the backyard sunshine, forgiving and being forgiven. It is all near and it is all sacred.
All for now,
Jen
3 comments:
:)
How daily life is, right Jen! Beauty truly is in the eyes of the beholder...pray we would all see oportunities in the dailies of life and appreciate how the mundane can be a delight! You go, girl! Nothing is better than smelling bread baking and watching your little ones at creative play! Those are the rewards of doing the daily things! love you so much! shari
I have the most amazing wife. I have seen her being shaped liked she shapes dough, though not clumsily or wondering but with exacting purpose but with no less love. This shaping has tow sources really, her God and herself. She has allowed her God to shape her and she actively, deliberately, and oh so passionately pursues betterment as a mama, a keeper of the home, and a wife. She has done amazing things in the past few short but lengthy years. She has grown in greater than exponential leaps and bounds. She is a seeker of love and beauty, and she finds it and I find it in her everyday when I see her, her home, her kitchen mess from baking, her children smiling and happy and kind and polite, and her reading choices. You are a better person after you meet Jenny Hunt, certainly better if you live with her because you cannot help but be infected by her passion to love more and create spaces and places for love to grow and flourish.
I love you.
I love your bread.
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